Combination of landscape ecology and population genetics as a new approach for the studies of animals gene flow

Combination of methods and concepts of population genetics, landscape ecology, and spatial statistics that create the approach of landscape genetics has emerged as anew research area in population ecology, wildlife management and conservation biology. It aims to study and predict how landscape features interact with microevolutionary processes, such as gene flow. In the context of habitat fragmentation, the current focus of landscape genetics is on assessing the degree to which landscapes facilitate the movement of organism (landscape connectivity) by relating gene flow patterns to landscape structure. Therefore, understanding of how landscape features affects dispersal and gene flow within and among populations and habitat patches is important to predict the effects of increased habitat modification and landscape changes on population persistence and processes of divergence. In order to researches in this field we should study two key stages. 1- Tracing of the spatial genetic distances using the high resolution of genetic markers, 2-relationship between the spatial genetic distances and landscape and environmental variables such as habitat patches and barrier that are calculated by geographical information system (GIS), using spatial statistics.

کلیدواژه ها:

landscape genetics ، population genetic ، landscape ecology ، gene flow