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Does recent habitat fragmentation affect the population genetics of a heathland specialist, Andrena fuscipes (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae)?

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Abstract

Habitat fragmentation is believed to be a key threat to biodiversity as it decreases the probability of survival of populations, reduces gene flow among populations and increases the possibility of inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity within populations. Heathlands represent excellent systems to study fragmentation effects as the spatial and temporal course of fragmentation is well documented for these habitats. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, heathlands were widespread in northern Germany, but they became increasingly fragmented at the end of the nineteenth century until only few fragments had been left. As many insect species are strongly specialized on heathland habitats, they represent ideal study systems to test the genetic effects of such recent fragmentation processes. The solitary bee Andrena fuscipes is strongly specialized on heather (Calluna vulgaris) and, therefore, occurs exclusively in heathland habitats. The species is red-listed in Germany and other parts of Europe. Here, we present an analysis of the genetic structure of 12 populations of A. fuscipes using eight microsatellite loci. The populations showed little geographical structure and the degree of genetic differentiation was low. Compared to related bee species, inbreeding coefficients were relatively low and seem to be mainly affected by the bees’ solitary nesting behaviour.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to A. Schanowski, C. Venne and S. Hameister for collecting material of A. fuscipes. We thank U. Coja for help in the laboratory. K. A. Witzenberger and T. Eggers gave helpful comments on a previous version of this manuscript. We also wish to thank R. Paxton for providing microsatellite primers and helpful comments. Financial support was provided by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (“Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt”) and the Environmental Foundation of Weser-Ems (“Umweltstiftung Weser-Ems”). We thank the regional administrations for the permission to collect specimens of A. fuscipes.

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  1. Department of Biology/Chemistry, Division of Ecology, University of Osnabrück, Barbarastr. 13, 49076, Osnabrück, Germany

    Nina Exeler & Anselm Kratochwil

  2. Department of Biogeography, Trier University, Am Wissenschaftspark 25-27, 54296, Trier, Germany

    Axel Hochkirch

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  1. Nina Exeler
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Correspondence to Nina Exeler.

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Exeler, N., Kratochwil, A. & Hochkirch, A. Does recent habitat fragmentation affect the population genetics of a heathland specialist, Andrena fuscipes (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae)?. Conserv Genet 11, 1679–1687 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-010-0060-5

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