Open AccessDispersal constraints and fine‐scale spatial genetic structure in two earthworm species
Author(s) -
Dupont Lise,
Grésille Ysoline,
Richard Benoît,
Decaëns Thibaud,
Mathieu Jérôme
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
biological journal of the linnean society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.906
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1095-8312
pISSN - 0024-4066
DOI - 10.1111/bij.12436
Subject(s) - biology , biological dispersal , genetic structure , earthworm , isolation by distance , evolutionary biology , microsatellite , lumbricidae , mantel test , spatial ecology , ecology , spatial analysis , genetic variation , zoology , genetics , population , statistics , allele , mathematics , demography , sociology , gene
The limited dispersal ability of earthworms is expected to result in marked genetic isolation by distance and remarkable spatial patterns of genetic variation. To test this hypothesis, we investigated, using microsatellite loci, the spatial genetic structure of two earthworm species, Allolobophora chlorotica and Aporrectodea icterica , in two plots of less than 1 ha where a total of 282 individuals were collected. We used spatial autocorrelation statistics, partial M antel tests of isolation‐by‐distance ( IBD ) and isolation‐by‐resistance ( IBR ), and B ayesian test of clustering to explore recent patterns involved in the observed genetic structure. For A. icterica , a low signal of genetic structure was detected, which may be explained by an important dispersal capacity and/or by the low polymorphism of the microsatellite loci. For A. chlorotica , a weak, but significant, pattern of IBD associated with positive autocorrelation was observed in one of the plots. In the other plot, which had been recently ploughed, two genetically differentiated clusters were identified. These results suggest a spatial neighbourhood structure in A. chlorotica, with neighbour individuals that tend to be more genetically similar to one another, and also highlight that habitat perturbation as a result of human activities may deeply alter the genetic structure of earthworm species, even at a very small scale. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2015, 114 , 335–347.