Identifying ecologically matching areas is both challenging and critical for understanding spatial patterns of biodiversity and advancing conservation planning. However, existing approaches often lack spatial flexibility, overlook shape and size constraints, or rely on limited environmental parameters, reducing their effectiveness in real‐world applications. To address these limitations, we developed and tested a four‐step fra...

In the last decades, interest in monitoring and quantifying biodiversity in human-modified landscapes ha increased, as anthropogenic disturbance is recognized as a major driver of biodiversity loss. However, green spaces within disturbed environments can sometimes serve as critical refuges for wildlife. In this study, we collected and analyzed data on bird and butterfly communities across a gradient of anthropogenic disturbanc...

Animals within social groups respond to costs and benefits of sociality by adjusting the proportion of time they spend in close proximity to other individuals in the group (cohesion). Variation in cohesion between individuals, in turn, shapes important group‐level processes such as subgroup formation and fission–fusion dynamics. Although critical to animal sociality, a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing coh...

Background Monitoring biodiversity is crucial in biogeography. Citizen science and biodiversity platforms have revolutionized data access across taxa, but they struggle to provide robust raw data essential for conservation decisions. Aims This study addresses data gaps for under‐represented species and locations, observer expertise variability, and the lack of absence data and sampling effort information to improve data repres...

Effective population size estimates are critical information needed for evolutionary predictions and conservation decisions. This is particularly true for species with social factors that restrict access to breeding or experience repeated fluctuations in population size across generations. We investigated the genomic estimates of effective population size along with diversity, subdivision, and inbreeding from 162,109 minimally...

Conservation breeding programs are increasingly used as recovery actions for wild animals; bringing founders into captivity to rear captive populations for future reintroduction into the wild. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature recommends that founders should come from genetically close populations and should have sufficient genetic diversity to avoid mating among relatives. Genomic data are highly informat...

Genetic mechanisms determining habitat selection and specialization of individuals within species have been hypothesized, but not tested at the appropriate individual level in nature. In this work, we analyzed habitat selection for 139 GPS‐collared caribou belonging to 3 declining ecotypes sampled throughout Northwestern Canada. We used Resource Selection Functions comparing resources at used and available locations. We found...

Selection forces that favour different phenotypes in different environments can change frequencies of genes between populations along environmental clines. Clines are also compatible with balancing forces, such as negative frequency‐dependent selection (NFDS), which maintains phenotypic polymorphisms within populations. For example, NFDS is hypothesized to maintain partial migration, a dimorphic behavioural trait prominent in...

In an era of ever‐increasing amounts of whole‐genome sequence data for individuals and populations, the utility of traditional single nucleotide polymorphisms ( SNP s) array‐based genome scans is uncertain. We previously performed a SNP array‐based genome scan to identify candidate genes under selection in six distinct grey wolf ( Canis lupus ) ecotypes. Using this information, we designed a targeted capture array for 1040 gen...

Previous genetic studies of the highly mobile grey wolf ( Canis lupus ) found population structure that coincides with habitat and phenotype differences. We hypothesized that these ecologically distinct populations (ecotypes) should exhibit signatures of selection in genes related to morphology, coat colour and metabolism. To test these predictions, we quantified population structure related to habitat using a genotyping array...

The role of Beringia as a refugium and route for trans‐continental exchange of fauna during glacial cycles of the past 2 million years are well documented; less apparent is its contribution as a significant reservoir of genetic diversity. Using mitochondrial DNA sequences and 14 microsatellite loci, we investigate the phylogeographic history of caribou ( Rangifer tarandus ) in western North America. Patterns of genetic diversi...

Maintenance of viable populations of many endangered species will require conservation action in perpetuity. Efforts to conserve these species are more likely to be successful if their reliance on conservation actions is assessed at the population level. Woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou ) were extirpated recently from Banff National Park, Canada, and translocations of caribou to Banff and neighboring Jasper Nationa...

In North America, caribou ( Rangifer tarandus ) experienced diversification in separate refugia before the last glacial maximum. Geographical isolation produced the barren‐ground caribou ( Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus ) with its distinctive migratory habits, and the woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou ), which has sedentary behaviour and is now in danger of extinction. Herein we report on the phylogenetics, populat...

The grey wolf has one of the largest historic distributions of any terrestrial mammal and can disperse over great distances across imposing topographic barriers. As a result, geographical distance and physical obstacles to dispersal may not be consequential factors in the evolutionary divergence of wolf populations. However, recent studies suggest ecological features can constrain gene flow. We tested whether wolf–prey associa...

In Alberta, Canada (1982–2001), and in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, United States (1987–2001), wolves ( Canis lupus ) killed various domestic animals, among which the major prey were sheep in the United States (68%, n = 494 ) and cattle in Canada (95%; n = 1633 ). Under recovery programs, the wolf population increased in the United States, and depredation events increased proportionately. In both countries, the number of domes...