EAPSI: Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on the Connectivity of Wildlife Populations

EAPSI：栖息地破碎化对野生动物种群连通性的影响

• 批准号: 1713812
• 负责人: Thomas Connor
• 金额: $ 0.54万
• 依托单位: Connor Thomas
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-06-01 至 2018-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1713812&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAPSI; Effects; Habitat; Fragmentation; Connectivity

Habitat loss and the fragmentation of remaining habitat are the biggest causes of declines in wildlife populations and global biodiversity. The way that human disturbance and habitat loss affect animal movement across the landscape and connect separate populations is difficult to understand, however. In order to investigate this topic, the project will use genetic analysis to measure population connectivity of giant pandas across several nature reserves and unprotected areas facing varying levels of human disturbance as a case study. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Jindong Zhang of China West Normal University, an expert in giant panda ecology. This will be done by collecting panda fecal samples across the study area and extracting DNA from the outer layer of each pellet. The genetic distance between panda individuals across the region will be analyzed and compared with landscape features to find out which ones enhance and which ones impede giant panda movement and gene flow. For example, a road or village will likely be much more difficult to move through than a forest. The project will also examine the amount of habitat that is needed to keep populations connected across a landscape. Results will inform management of not only giant pandas, but other habitat specialist species facing habitat fragmentation and human disturbance pressures. Habitat fragmentation, resulting from natural and anthropogenic disturbances, is a complex pressure for wildlife that can affect species differently. The giant panda is a species that faces extensive fragmentation throughout its range, and is an ideal habitat-specialist to study its effects due to a reliance on understory bamboo habitat. This project will use giant pandas as a case study to investigate the effects of natural and anthropogenic habitat fragmentation on the connectivity of wildlife populations. Non-invasive genetics sampling of fecal deposits across a nature reserve network will be collected to compare the genetic distance between panda individuals with different measures of environmental distance. Analyses of the covariance of these matrixes will determine the major barriers and areas of resistance to gene flow and population connectivity throughout the region. Results will enhance understanding of not only giant panda ecology, but also advance knowledge of the effects of habitat fragmentation on habitat specialist species.This award, under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program, supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.

栖息地的丧失和剩余栖息地的破碎化是野生动物种群和全球生物多样性下降的最大原因。然而，人类干扰和栖息地丧失如何影响动物在景观中的运动，并将不同的种群联系起来，这一点很难理解。为了研究这一主题，该项目将使用遗传分析来测量大熊猫在几个自然保护区和面临不同程度人类干扰的未受保护地区的种群连通性，作为案例研究。这项研究将与西华师范大学的大熊猫生态学专家张金东博士合作进行。这将通过收集整个研究区域的熊猫粪便样本并从每个颗粒的外层提取DNA来完成。将分析该地区大熊猫个体之间的遗传距离，并将其与景观特征进行比较，以找出哪些因素增强了大熊猫的运动和基因流动，哪些因素阻碍了大熊猫的运动和基因流动。例如，道路或村庄可能比森林更难通过。该项目还将研究保持人口在景观中联系所需的栖息地数量。研究结果不仅将为大熊猫的管理提供信息，还将为面临栖息地破碎化和人类干扰压力的其他栖息地专业物种提供信息。自然和人为干扰造成的生境破碎化对野生动物来说是一种复杂的压力，可能对物种产生不同的影响。大熊猫是一个物种，面临着广泛的碎片在其整个范围内，是一个理想的栖息地专家研究其影响，由于依赖于林下竹栖息地。该项目将以大熊猫为例，研究自然和人为生境破碎化对野生动物种群连通性的影响。将收集自然保护区网络中粪便沉积物的非侵入性遗传学样本，以比较具有不同环境距离测量值的大熊猫个体之间的遗传距离。对这些矩阵的协方差分析将确定整个区域基因流动和人口联系的主要障碍和阻力领域。研究结果不仅将加深对大熊猫生态学的理解，还将推动对栖息地破碎化对栖息地特殊物种影响的认识。该奖项是东亚和太平洋夏季研究所项目下的一项研究，由美国国家科学基金会和中国科技部共同资助，资助一名美国研究生的夏季研究。