the formation and regulation of vertebrate endogenous intestinal microbiota has been widely studied as the microbiota plays a crucial role in the host nutrition, development, and health. despite the importance of microbiota for host health, it is still unclear whether the endogenous intestinal microorganisms are genetically distinct or whether they are genetically related with each other in dif...

The impact of an invasive species depends upon the extent of area across which it ultimately spreads. A powerful strategy for limiting impact, then, is to limit spread, and this can most easily be achieved by managing or reinforcing natural barriers to spread. Using a simulation model, we show that rapid evolutionary increases in dispersal can render permeable an otherwise effective barrier. On...

Animal personalities are an important factor that affects the dispersal of animals. In the context of aquatic species, dispersal modeling needs to consider that most freshwater ecosystems are highly fragmented by barriers reducing longitudinal connectivity. Previous research has incorporated such barriers into dispersal models under the neutral assumption that all migrating animals attempt to a...

Sharp and stable clinal variation is enigmatic when found in species with high gene flow. Classical population genetic models treat gene flow as a random homogenizing force countering local adaptation across habitat discontinuities. Under this view, dispersal over large spatial scales will lower the effectiveness of adaptation by natural selection at finer spatial scales. Thus, random gene flow...

Non-local reaction-diffusion equations arise naturally to account for diffusions involving jumps rather than local diffusions related to Brownian motion. In ecology, long distance dispersal require such frameworks. In this work we study a one-dimensional non-local reaction-diffusion equation with bistable and monostable type reactions. The heterogeneity here from due to the presence of a barrie...

Understanding the way in which habitat fragmentation disrupts animal dispersal is key to identifying effective and efficient conservation strategies. To differentiate the potential effectiveness of 2 frequently used strategies for increasing the connectivity of populations in fragmented landscapes-corridors and stepping stones-we combined 3 complimentary methods: behavioral studies at habitat e...

Gene flow strongly influences the regional genetic structuring of plant populations. Seed and pollen dispersal patterns can respond differently to the increased isolation resulting from habitat fragmentation, with unpredictable consequences for gene flow and population structuring. In a recently fragmented landscape we compared the pre- and post-fragmentation genetic structure of populations of...

Different analytical techniques used on the same data set may lead to different conclusions about the existence and strength of genetic structure. Therefore, reliable interpretation of the results from different methods depends on the efficacy and reliability of different statistical methods. In this paper, we evaluated the performance of multiple analytical methods to detect the presence of a ...

Rabies control in terrestrial wildlife reservoirs relies heavily on an oral rabies vaccine (ORV). In addition to direct ORV delivery to protect wildlife in natural habitats, vaccine corridors have been constructed to control the spread; these corridors are often developed around natural barriers, such as rivers, to enhance the effectiveness of vaccine deployment. However, the question of how to...

Connectivity is a critical measure affecting the evolution and ecology of species. The purpose of this thesis was to assess connectivity between populations of Stegastes partitus at seven sites along the Mesoamerican barrier reef. First, seven novel microsatellite markers were developed to allow the assessment of genetic population structure in S. partitus in conjunction with existing markers. ...