Swift Fox Deforestation
In the second paper by Schwalm et al. (2014), they studied the Swift Fox, Vulpes velox, of the Great Plains. This organism is found throughout the United States, residing mostly in grassland ecosystems. Grassland ecosystems have seen a great decline throughout the years and receive very little protection against human development and urbanization. The distribution of Swift Foxes has also declined along with the reduction of viable grassland habitat, leading to fragmentation of populations.
For their experiment, they took various blood hair and tissue samples from locations across the United States. From their 589 DNA samples they analyzed 15 microsatellite loci amplified using PCR. For a control, they used approximately 250 base pairs of mitochondrial …show more content…
looked at the habitat fragmentation and population isolation of Petaurus norfolcensis, the Australian Sugar Glider. With the increase in deforestation for human development, this tree-dwelling species has been on the decline and is now considered threatened. The squirrel glider’s habitat has been reduced to small patches of forest, usually separated by large roads or rivers. Since the squirrel gliders dispersion is limited by its ability to glide from one tree to another, or risk heavy predation by travelling across the ground, it has been greatly impaired by the fragmentation of their habitat …show more content…
They found high levels of genetic distinction between all of populations around the heavily urbanized areas. There were two populations that showed significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium due to isolation and inbreeding. Overall allelic richness was low to moderate, with the lowest levels of genetic diversity in populations separated from each other by heavily developed anthropogenic barriers. The increased effect of habitat fragmentation on genetic diversity may have been due to the limited capability of the squirrel glider to disperse even over smaller distance barriers. As they relied on gliding from tree to tree to disperse, even a small road may have acted as a significant barrier (Taylor et al.,
For their experiment, they took various blood hair and tissue samples from locations across the United States. From their 589 DNA samples they analyzed 15 microsatellite loci amplified using PCR. For a control, they used approximately 250 base pairs of mitochondrial …show more content…
looked at the habitat fragmentation and population isolation of Petaurus norfolcensis, the Australian Sugar Glider. With the increase in deforestation for human development, this tree-dwelling species has been on the decline and is now considered threatened. The squirrel glider’s habitat has been reduced to small patches of forest, usually separated by large roads or rivers. Since the squirrel gliders dispersion is limited by its ability to glide from one tree to another, or risk heavy predation by travelling across the ground, it has been greatly impaired by the fragmentation of their habitat …show more content…
They found high levels of genetic distinction between all of populations around the heavily urbanized areas. There were two populations that showed significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium due to isolation and inbreeding. Overall allelic richness was low to moderate, with the lowest levels of genetic diversity in populations separated from each other by heavily developed anthropogenic barriers. The increased effect of habitat fragmentation on genetic diversity may have been due to the limited capability of the squirrel glider to disperse even over smaller distance barriers. As they relied on gliding from tree to tree to disperse, even a small road may have acted as a significant barrier (Taylor et al.,