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

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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.