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Aplicaciones de Pruebas de Cuello de Botella Genético para la Investigación de Disminuciones de Anfibios: un Caso de Estudio con el Sapo ( Bufo calamita )
Author(s) -
Beebee Trevor,
Rowe Graham
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
conservation biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.2
H-Index - 222
eISSN - 1523-1739
pISSN - 0888-8892
DOI - 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2001.99438.x
Subject(s) - bufo , biology , amphibian , bottleneck , ecology , population , abundance (ecology) , population bottleneck , genetic variability , conservation biology , zoology , allele , demography , evolutionary biology , geography , microsatellite , genetics , genotype , computer science , gene , embedded system , toad , sociology
Declines of amphibians are causing widespread concern and in some cases have been explained by factors such as climate change and the spread of microbial pathogens. A problem remains, however, in the unequivocal demonstration of decline in situations where populations may be undergoing natural fluctuations in abundance. We describe the application of a genetic test for bottlenecks (Cornuet & Luikart 1996) that should distinguish between natural oscillations and true population declines. British natterjack toads ( Bufo calamita ) provide examples of populations that have not declined in recent decades, populations that have declined, and populations in which trends are unclear. Microsatellite allele frequency data from these populations were tested for heterozygote excess and shifts in allele frequency distributions, and inferences from these computations about bottlenecks (i.e., persistently smaller population sizes than the recent means) were compared with demographic information. The genetic test correctly identified bottlenecks and should therefore prove useful in demonstrating whether amphibian declines have occurred where long‐term demographic time series are not available.