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Do Snow‐Adapted Prey Facilitate Coexistence of the Sierra Nevada Red Fox With Sympatric Carnivores?NARA Subscribed
Specialist species in alpine ecosystems may be increasingly threatened by climate‐driven habitat loss and encroachment by generalist competitors. Ecological theory predicts that niche differentiation through dietary specialisation can facilitate coexistence with generalist competitors. We quantified dietary overlap between a high‐elevation specialist, the Sierra Nevada red fox (SNRF; Vulpes vulpes necator ) and a widespread ge...
Urbanisation Facilitates Intrapopulation Dietary Niche Diversity in a Generalist CarnivoreNARA Subscribed
The niche variation hypothesis predicts that members of generalist species are specialists, and that the degree of individual specialisation correlates positively with resource diversity. Urban landscapes are highly heterogeneous in resource distribution; therefore, we predicted urbanisation would be associated with narrower individual dietary niches and greater differentiation among individuals of generalist species. We used...
Snow leopard phylogeography and population structure supports two global populations with single refugial originNARA Subscribed
Snow leopards ( Panthera uncia ) inhabit the mountainous regions of High Asia, which experienced serial glacial contraction and expansion during climatic cycles of the Pleistocene. The corresponding impacts of glacial vicariance may have alternately promoted or constrained genetic differentiation to shape the distribution of genetic lineages and population structure. We studied snow leopard phylogeography across High Asia by e...
Human‐facilitated introductions of nonnative populations can lead to secondary contact between allopatric lineages, resulting in lineage homogenisation or the formation of stable hybrid zones maintained by reproductive barriers. We investigated patterns of gene flow between the native Sacramento Valley red fox ( Vulpes vulpes patwin ) and introduced conspecifics of captive‐bred origin in California's Central Valley. Considerin...
Evolutionary history of the salt marsh harvest mouse mitogenome is concordant with ancient patterns of sea level riseNARA Subscribed
Coastal wetland ecosystems support unique biodiversity and are imminently threatened by climate change-driven sea level rise. However, the impact of climate change on their demographic and evolutionary histories is poorly understood. To improve our understanding, we examined how past climatic events have shaped the evolutionary history of the salt marsh harvest mouse ( Reithrodontomys raviventris ), an endangered species and a...
Deer dietary responses to wildfire: Optimal foraging, individual specialization, or opportunism?NARA Subscribed
Increasing impacts of wildfire on arid regions of the world fuelled by climate change highlight the need to better understand how natural communities respond to fire. We took advantage of a large (1660‐km 2 ) wildfire that erupted in northern California during an in‐progress study of black‐tailed deer ( Odocoileus hemionus columbianus ) to investigate deer use of and diets within burned and unburned habitats before and after t...
Secondary contact zones between deeply divergent, yet interfertile, lineages provide windows into the speciation process. North American grey foxes ( Urocyon cinereoargenteus ) are divided into western and eastern lineages that diverged approximately 1 million years ago. These ancient lineages currently hybridize in a relatively narrow zone of contact in the southern Great Plains, a pattern more commonly observed in smaller‐bo...
Before Europeans colonized North America, a uniquely American wolf roamed the eastern forests of southern Canada to Florida and west to the Great Plains. Known today as “red wolf” ( Canis rufus ) in the south and “eastern wolf” ( Canis lycaon ) in the north, evidence suggests that these indigenous forest wolves shared a common evolutionary history until only a few centuries ago when they were extirpated from the intervening ma...
Landscape genetics of an endangered salt marsh endemic: Identifying population continuity and barriers to dispersalNARA Subscribed
Preserving the genetic diversity of endangered species is fundamental to their conservation and requires an understanding of genetic structure. In turn, identification of landscape features that impede gene flow can facilitate management to mitigate such obstacles and help with identifying isolated populations. We conducted a landscape genetic study of the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse ( Reithrodontomys raviventris ), a...
Development of a 95 SNP panel to individually genotype mountain lions (Puma concolor) for microfluidic and other genotyping platformsNARA Subscribed
The mountain lion ( Puma concolor ) is one of the few remaining large predators in California, USA with density estimation from fecal genotypes becoming an essential component of conservation and management. In highly urbanized southern California, mountain lions are fragmented into small, inbred populations making proper marker selection critical for individual identification. We developed a panel of single nucleotide polymor...
Carnivores tend to exhibit a lack of (or less pronounced) genetic structure at continental scales in both a geographic and temporal sense and this can confound the identification of post‐glacial colonization patterns in this group. In this study we used genome‐wide data (using genotyping by sequencing [GBS]) to reconstruct the phylogeographic history of a widespread carnivore, the red fox ( Vulpes vulpes ), by investigating br...
Assessing genetic diversity and connectivity in a tule elk (Cervus canadensis nannodes) metapopulation in Northern CaliforniaNARA Subscribed
The tule elk ( Cervus canadensis nannodes ) is a California endemic subspecies that experienced an extreme bottleneck (potentially two individuals) in the mid-1800s. Through active management, including reintroductions, the subspecies has grown to approximately 6000 individuals spread across 22 recognized populations. The populations tend to be localized and separated by unoccupied intervening habitat, prompting targeted trans...
Development of 79 SNP markers to individually genotype and sex-type endangered mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei)NARA Subscribed
The mountain gorilla ( Gorilla beringei beringei ) is one of two endangered subspecies of eastern gorilla. The principle approach to monitoring the two extant mountain gorilla populations has been to use fecal surveys to obtain DNA profiles for individuals that are then used for capture-recapture-based estimates of abundance. To date, 11 to 14 microsatellites have been used for this purpose. To adapt to ongoing changes in geno...
Ancient divergence of Indian and Tibetan wolves revealed by recombination‐aware phylogenomicsNARA Subscribed
The grey wolf ( Canis lupus ) expanded its range across Holarctic regions during the late Pleistocene. Consequently, most grey wolves share recent (
Pleistocene origins, western ghost lineages, and the emerging phylogeographic history of the red wolf and coyoteNARA Subscribed
The red wolf ( Canis rufus ) of the eastern US was driven to near‐extinction by colonial‐era persecution and habitat conversion, which facilitated coyote ( C . latrans ) range expansion and widespread hybridization with red wolves. The observation of some grey wolf ( C . lupus ) ancestry within red wolves sparked controversy over whether it was historically a subspecies of grey wolf with its predominant “coyote‐like” ancestry...
TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open accessNARA Subscribed
Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodivers...
Genetic footprints reveal geographic patterns of expansion in Fennoscandian red foxesNARA Subscribed
Population expansions of boreal species are among the most substantial ecological consequences of climate change, potentially transforming both structure and processes of northern ecosystems. Despite their importance, little is known about expansion dynamics of boreal species. Red foxes ( Vulpes vulpes ) are forecasted to become a keystone species in northern Europe, a process stemming from population expansions that began in...
Global change is impacting forests worldwide, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services including climate regulation. Understanding how forests respond is critical to forest conservation and climate protection. This review describes an international network of 59 long‐term forest dynamics research sites ( CTFS ‐Forest GEO ) useful for characterizing forest responses to global change. Within very large plots (median size...