Dissertation Research: Factors Mediating Gene Flow in a Mobile and Continuously Distributed Species, the Bobcat (Lynx rufus)

对于大多数动物物种来说，自然或人为的障碍，如水道、道路或栖息地间隙，往往限制了个体在景观中的移动，减少了遗传交流，并将成员隔离到不同的种群中。但高度流动、广泛分布的物种可能不太容易受到这种障碍的影响，因此遗传细分。本研究将确定景观特征是否以及如何在移动食肉动物山猫（Lynx rufus）的三个空间尺度上介导基因流动。在局部尺度上，遥测、遗传和景观数据将结合起来，以测试栖息地破碎化是否会影响农业景观中山猫的运动和精细尺度的遗传结构。在区域尺度上，遗传模式将被用来描绘种群，并确定影响山猫最近向它们已经灭绝的地区扩张的景观特征。在大陆尺度上，将收集和分析来自美国各地的DNA样本，以确定景观特征是否也会产生更深层次的、广泛的遗传差异，从而保证被识别为不同的亚种。这个项目将大大提高我们对景观特征如何影响山猫等流动物种的进化和生态过程的理解。这些发现对于评估景观变化对种群动态和物种持久性的潜在影响、预测新出现疾病的传播以及有效管理野生动物具有重要意义。这项工作还将通过指导和推广，以及为高中生物教师提供实践研究经验，促进科学教育。

For most animal species, natural or man-made barriers such as waterways, roads, or habitat gaps often constrain the movement of individuals across a landscape, reducing genetic exchange and isolating members into distinct populations. But highly mobile, broadly distributed species may be less susceptible to such barriers and hence genetic subdivision. This study will identify if and how landscape characteristics mediate gene flow over three spatial scales in a mobile carnivore, the bobcat (Lynx rufus). At the local scale, telemetry, genetic, and landscape data will be combined to test whether habitat fragmentation influences movement and fine-scale genetic structuring of bobcats within an agricultural landscape. At the regional scale, genetic patterns will be used to delineate populations and identify landscape characteristics influencing recent expansions of bobcats into areas from which they had been extirpated. At the continental scale, DNA samples will be collected and analyzed from across the United States to determine whether landscape features also generate deeper, broad-scale genetic divergences that warrant recognition as distinct subspecies. This project will lead to significant improvements in our understanding of how landscape characteristics may influence evolutionary and ecological processes in mobile species like bobcats. Such findings are important for evaluating the potential impact of landscape changes on population dynamics and species persistence, predicting the spread of emerging diseases, and effectively managing wildlife. This work will also foster science education through mentoring and outreach, and by providing a hands-on research experience for a high school biology teacher.