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Conservation significance of island versus mainland populations: a case study of dibblers (Parantechinus apicalis) in Western Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2004

Harriet R. Mills
Affiliation:
School of Animal Biology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009
Dorian Moro
Affiliation:
Centre for Ecosystem Management, School of Natural Science, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, 6027 Present address: NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and School of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, UK, LL57 2UP
Peter B. S. Spencer
Affiliation:
CRC for the Conservation and Management of Marsupials, c/- Veterinary Biology, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, 6150
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Abstract

Island populations are an interesting dichotomy in conservation biology. On the one hand, they can be a refuge for species where mainland populations have been decimated by loss of habitat and predation by exotic predators. On the other hand, island populations usually have reduced genetic diversity and are more susceptible to extinction through genetic and demographic processes. Genetic variation and morphological characters were measured for island and mainland populations of Parantechinus apicalis, small dasyurid marsupials, restricted to southwest Australia. Genetic variation at seven microsatellite loci revealed low levels of heterozygosity (He = 0.20−0.44) and high levels of inbreeding (Fe = 0.40−0.72) in island populations compared with the mainland population (He = 0.73). A nested clade analysis revealed that allopatric fragmentation was probably responsible for the association between geographical location and control region haplotypes, which is consistent with the isolation of populations on islands and indicative of two main populations of P. apicalis representing separate conservation units for management. While these results are typical of many island populations, they have important implications in terms of the conservation of threatened species in Australia and around the world, where island populations are a common source of founders for captive breeding and translocation to mainland sites.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2004 The Zoological Society of London

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