Recent habitat fragmentation due to roads can lead to significant genetic differentiation in an abundant flightless ground beetle.

摘要: Although habitat fragmentation is suspected to pose a major threat biodiversity, its impact on abundant invertebrate species has been little investigated. We assessed the genetic population structure of flightless ground beetle Abax parallelepipedus in forest fragmented by two main roads and highway using five microsatellite loci. detected low levels differentiation, which was concordant with high densities 632-1707 individuals/ha estimated mark-recapture method. A Mantel test highly significant increase pairwise F(ST)-values number between sampling locations. As expected, most pronounced effect isolation due observed sample from smallest fragment (highway exit loop), differentiated significantly other However, no signs recent bottleneck or loss variability were this population, indicating still relatively large effective size (N(e)). Computer simulations confirmed that indeed compatible N(e) few hundred individuals fragment, assuming strong absolute since construction roads. discuss implications our findings for conservation but poorly dispersing habitats.