Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Application of the One‐Migrant‐per‐Generation Rule to Conservation and Management

Application of the One‐Migrant‐per‐Generation Rule to Conservation and Management Abstract: Endangered species are commonly found in several (partially) isolated populations dispersed on different fragments of a habitat, natural reserve, or zoo. A certain level of connectivity among such populations is essential for maintaining genetic variation within and between populations to allow local and global adaptation and for preventing inbreeding depression. A rule of thumb widely accepted by the conservation community is that one migrant per generation (OMPG) into a population is the appropriate level of gene flow. This rule is based on Wright's study of his island model under a long list of simplifying assumptions. I examined the robustness of the OMPG rule to the violation of each of the many assumptions, quantifying the effect with population genetics theory. I showed that, when interpreted as one effective migrant per generation, OMPG is generally valid for real populations departing from the ideal model in the discrepancies of actual ( N) and effective ( Ne ) population sizes and actual (m) and effective (me ) migration rates. I also addressed the issue of converting the effective number of migrants ( Me= Neme ) into the actual number of migrants (M = Nm ) of a certain age and sex. In particular, Ne< N, a case common for natural populations, did not necessarily require M > Meto maintain a certain level of differentiation among populations. Rather, translating the elusive Meinto the manageable M depends on the specific causes (e.g., biased sex ratio, reproductive skew) that lead to Ne< N. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Conservation Biology Wiley

Application of the One‐Migrant‐per‐Generation Rule to Conservation and Management

Conservation Biology , Volume 18 (2) – Apr 1, 2004

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/application-of-the-one-migrant-per-generation-rule-to-conservation-and-eSkg3n3Orm

References (48)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
ISSN
0888-8892
eISSN
1523-1739
DOI
10.1111/j.1523-1739.2004.00440.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract: Endangered species are commonly found in several (partially) isolated populations dispersed on different fragments of a habitat, natural reserve, or zoo. A certain level of connectivity among such populations is essential for maintaining genetic variation within and between populations to allow local and global adaptation and for preventing inbreeding depression. A rule of thumb widely accepted by the conservation community is that one migrant per generation (OMPG) into a population is the appropriate level of gene flow. This rule is based on Wright's study of his island model under a long list of simplifying assumptions. I examined the robustness of the OMPG rule to the violation of each of the many assumptions, quantifying the effect with population genetics theory. I showed that, when interpreted as one effective migrant per generation, OMPG is generally valid for real populations departing from the ideal model in the discrepancies of actual ( N) and effective ( Ne ) population sizes and actual (m) and effective (me ) migration rates. I also addressed the issue of converting the effective number of migrants ( Me= Neme ) into the actual number of migrants (M = Nm ) of a certain age and sex. In particular, Ne< N, a case common for natural populations, did not necessarily require M > Meto maintain a certain level of differentiation among populations. Rather, translating the elusive Meinto the manageable M depends on the specific causes (e.g., biased sex ratio, reproductive skew) that lead to Ne< N.

Journal

Conservation BiologyWiley

Published: Apr 1, 2004

There are no references for this article.