Effects of landscape, resource use, and body size on genetic structure
in bee populations
Abstract
Quantifying genetic structure and levels of genetic variation are
fundamentally important to predicting the ability of populations to
persist in human-altered landscapes and adapt to future environmental
changes. Genetic structure reflects the dispersal of individuals over
generations, which can be mediated by species-level traits or
environmental factors. Dispersal distances are commonly positively
associated with body size and negatively associated with the amount of
degraded habitat between sites, motivating investigation of these
potential drivers of dispersal concomitantly. We quantified genetic
structure and genetic variability within populations of seven Euglossine
bee species in the genus Euglossa across fragmented landscapes. We
genotyped bees at thousands of SNP loci and tested the following
predictions: (1) deforested areas restrict gene flow; (2) larger species
have lower genetic structure; (3) species with greater resource
specialization have higher genetic structure; and (4) sites surrounded
by more intact habitat have higher genetic diversity. Contrasting with
previous work on bees, we found no associations of body size and genetic
structure. Genetic structure was higher for species with greater
resource specialization, and the amount of intact habitat between or
surrounding sites was positively associated with parameters reflecting
gene flow and genetic diversity. These results challenge the dominant
paradigm that individuals of larger species disperse farther. They
suggest that landscape and resource requirements are important factors
mediating dispersal, and they motivate further work into ecological
drivers of gene flow for bees.