Climate and habitat barriers to dispersal in the highly mobile grey wolf

摘要: We reanalysed published data to evaluate whether climate and habitat are barriers dispersal in one of the most mobile widely distributed mammals, grey wolf ( Canis lupus ). Distance-based redundancy analysis (dbRDA) was used examine amount variation genetic distances that could be explained by an array environmental factors, including geographical distance. Patterns were also examined using MDS plots among populations relationships between structure individual variables further explored BIOENV procedure. found that, contrary a previous report, pattern isolation with distance is evident on continental scale North American population. This apparently related habitat. Specifically, vegetation types appear play role dissimilarities populations. When we controlled for effect spatial variation, still associated Further, partitioning into latitudinal longitudinal axes revealed east–west gradient had strongest relationship suggest two possible mechanisms which conditions may influence decisions made wolves.