Genetic erosion reduces biomass temporal stability in wild fish populations.

Genetic diversity sustains species adaptation. However, it may also support key ecosystems functions and services, for example biomass production, that can be altered by the worldwide loss of genetic diversity. Despite extensive experimental evidence, there have been few attempts to empirically test whether genetic diversity actually promotes biomass and biomass stability in wild populations.

Molecular approaches reveal weak sibship aggregation and a high dispersal propensity in a non-native fish parasite.

Inferring parameters related to the aggregation pattern of parasites and to their dispersal propensity are important for predicting their ecological consequences and evolutionary potential. Nonetheless, it is notoriously difficult to infer these parameters from wildlife parasites given the difficulty in tracking these organisms. Molecular-based inferences constitute a promising approach that has yet rarely been applied in the wild.

Congruent Genetic and Demographic Dispersal Rates in a Natural Metapopulation at Equilibrium.

Understanding the functioning of natural metapopulations at relevant spatial and temporal scales is necessary to accurately feed both theoretical eco-evolutionary models and conservation plans. One key metric to describe the dynamics of metapopulations is dispersal rate. It can be estimated with either direct field estimates of individual movements or with indirect molecular methods, but the two approaches do not necessarily match.

Patterns of Epigenetic Diversity in Two Sympatric Fish Species: Genetic vs. Environmental Determinants.

Epigenetic components are hypothesized to be sensitive to the environment, which should permit species to adapt to environmental changes. In wild populations, epigenetic variation should therefore be mainly driven by environmental variation. Here, we tested whether epigenetic variation (DNA methylation) observed in wild populations is related to their genetic background, and/or to the local environment.

Demography, genetics, and decline of a spatially structured population of lekking bird.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying population decline is a critical challenge for conservation biologists. Both deterministic (e.g.

Quantifying the individual impact of artificial barriers in freshwaters: A standardized and absolute genetic index of fragmentation.

Fragmentation by artificial barriers is an important threat to freshwater biodiversity. Mitigating the negative aftermaths of fragmentation is of crucial importance, and it is now essential for environmental managers to benefit from a precise estimate of the individual impact of weirs and dams on river connectivity. Although the indirect monitoring of fragmentation using molecular data constitutes a promising approach, it is plagued with several constraints preventing a standardized quantification of barrier effects.

A river runs through it: The causes, consequences, and management of intraspecific diversity in river networks.

Rivers are fascinating ecosystems in which the eco-evolutionary dynamics of organisms are constrained by particular features, and biologists have developed a wealth of knowledge about freshwater biodiversity patterns. Over the last 10 years, our group used a holistic approach to contribute to this knowledge by focusing on the causes and consequences of intraspecific diversity in rivers. We conducted empirical works on temperate permanent rivers from southern France, and we broadened the scope of our findings using experiments, meta-analyses, and simulations.

Isolation and characterization of fourteen polymorphic microsatellite markers in the viperine snake .

Nineteen polymorphic microsatellite loci were identified and developed for . Polymorphism was assessed for 120 individuals sampled across four sampling sites from the French Pyrenees Mountains. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 15, and expected heterozygosity per locus ranged from 0.

Kin-dependent dispersal influences relatedness and genetic structuring in a lek system.

Kin selection and dispersal play a critical role in the evolution of cooperative breeding systems. Limited dispersal increases relatedness in spatially structured populations (population viscosity), with the result that neighbours tend to be genealogical relatives. Yet the increase in neighbours' fitness-related performance through altruistic interaction may also result in habitat saturation and thus exacerbate local competition between kin.

Variability of functional traits and their syndromes in a freshwater fish species (): The role of adaptive and nonadaptive processes.

Functional traits can covary to form "functional syndromes." Describing and understanding functional syndromes is an important prerequisite for predicting the effects of organisms on ecosystem functioning. At the intraspecific level, functional syndromes have recently been described, but very little is known about their variability among populations and-if they vary-what the ecological and evolutionary drivers of this variation are.

Landscape genetic analyses of Cervus elaphus and Sus scrofa: comparative study and analytical developments.

Red deer and wild boar are two major game species whose populations are managed and live in areas impacted by human activities. Measuring and understanding the impact of landscape features on individual movements and spatial patterns of genetic variability in these species is thus of importance for managers. A large number of individuals sampled across Wallonia (Belgium) for both species have been genotyped using microsatellite markers (respectively > 1700 and > 1200 genotyped individuals) and some individuals have also been followed using a capture-mark-recapture (CMR) protocol.

Habitat choice meets thermal specialization: Competition with specialists may drive suboptimal habitat preferences in generalists.

Limited dispersal is classically considered as a prerequisite for ecological specialization to evolve, such that generalists are expected to show greater dispersal propensity compared with specialists. However, when individuals choose habitats that maximize their performance instead of dispersing randomly, theory predicts dispersal with habitat choice to evolve in specialists, while generalists should disperse more randomly. We tested whether habitat choice is associated with thermal niche specialization using microcosms of the ciliate , a species that performs active dispersal.

Demographic and genetic approaches to study dispersal in wild animal populations: A methodological review.

Dispersal is a central process in ecology and evolution. At the individual level, the three stages of the dispersal process (i.e.

Using connectivity to identify climatic drivers of local adaptation: a response to Macdonald et al.

Macdonald et al. (Ecol. Lett.

Genetic costructure in a meta-community under threat of habitat fragmentation.

Habitat fragmentation increasingly threatens the services provided by natural communities and ecosystem worldwide. An understanding of the eco-evolutionary processes underlying fragmentation-compromised communities in natural settings is lacking, yet critical to realistic and sustainable conservation. Through integrating the multivariate genetic, biotic and abiotic facets of a natural community module experiencing various degrees of habitat fragmentation, we provide unique insights into the processes underlying community functioning in real, natural conditions.

Inferring Causalities in Landscape Genetics: An Extension of Wright's Causal Modeling to Distance Matrices.

Identifying landscape features that affect functional connectivity among populations is a major challenge in fundamental and applied sciences. Landscape genetics combines landscape and genetic data to address this issue, with the main objective of disentangling direct and indirect relationships among an intricate set of variables. Causal modeling has strong potential to address the complex nature of landscape genetic data sets.

Time to Go Bigger: Emerging Patterns in Macrogenetics.

The increasing availability of large-scale and high-resolution data sets in population genetics is moving the field toward a novel research agenda. Here, we show how this shift toward macrogenetics should generate new perspectives and theories allowing the description, understanding, and prediction of patterns of genetic diversity at broad spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales.

Distribution and predictors of wing shape and size variability in three sister species of solitary bees.

Morphological traits can be highly variable over time in a particular geographical area. Different selective pressures shape those traits, which is crucial in evolutionary biology. Among these traits, insect wing morphometry has already been widely used to describe phenotypic variability at the inter-specific level.