Lessons for conservation management: Monitoring temporal changes in genetic diversity of Cape mountain zebra (Equus zebra zebra)
| Autor: | J. Paul Grobler, Rae Marvin Smith, Coral Birss, Anna M. van Wyk, Gordon Luikart, Desiré L. Dalton, Antoinette Kotze, Yoshan Moodley |
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| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine Conservation genetics Heredity Conservation Biology 01 natural sciences South Africa Inbreeding depression Inbreeding Conservation Science Nature reserve Mammals education.field_of_study Principal Component Analysis Multidisciplinary Heterozygosity biology Ecology Eukaryota Mountain zebra Habitat Genetic structure Vertebrates Conservation Genetics Medicine Zebras Research Article Conservation of Natural Resources Heterozygote Ecological Metrics Science Population Equines 010603 evolutionary biology 03 medical and health sciences Genetics Animals education Evolutionary Biology Population Biology Ecology and Environmental Sciences Organisms Genetic Variation Biology and Life Sciences Species Diversity Equidae biology.organism_classification 030104 developmental biology Genetics Population Equus zebra Amniotes Genetic Polymorphism human activities Population Genetics |
| Zdroj: | PLoS ONE PLoS ONE, Vol 14, Iss 7, p e0220331 (2019) Teesside University |
| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
| Popis: | The Cape mountain zebra (Equus zebra zebra) is a subspecies of mountain zebra endemic to South Africa. The Cape mountain zebra experienced near extinction in the early 1900's and their numbers have since recovered to more than 4,800 individuals. However, there are still threats to their long-term persistence. A previous study reported that Cape mountain zebra had low genetic diversity in three relict populations and that urgent conservation management actions were needed to mitigate the risk of further loss. As these suggestions went largely unheeded, we undertook the present study, fifteen years later to determine the impact of management on genetic diversity in three key populations. Our results show a substantial loss of heterozygosity across the Cape mountain zebra populations studied. The most severe losses occurred at De Hoop Nature Reserve where expected heterozygosity reduced by 22.85% from 0.385 to 0.297. This is alarming, as the De Hoop Nature Reserve was previously identified as the most genetically diverse population owing to its founders originating from two of the three remaining relict stocks. Furthermore, we observed a complete loss of multiple private alleles from all populations, and a related reduction in genetic structure across the subspecies. These losses could lead to inbreeding depression and reduce the evolutionary potential of the Cape mountain zebra. We recommend immediate implementation of evidence-based genetic management and monitoring to prevent further losses, which could jeopardise the long term survival of Cape mountain zebra, especially in the face of habitat and climate change and emerging diseases. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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