Research Group 2: Evolutionary Genetics

		Niko Balkenhol, Ph. D. Evolutionary Genetics Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Berlin

Education and scientific career:

Research interests:

Spatial wildlife ecology, particularly the effects of environmental heterogeneity on space-use, dispersal, and resulting genetic patterns (‘landscape genetics’).

Current project:

Effects of landscape fragmentation on genetic diversity and genetic structure of Marmosops incanus
in the coastal Atlantic forest of Brazil:

Habitat fragmentation is considered one of the main threats to biodiversity. Fragmentation can lead to reduced local population sizes and reduced migration rates among remaining habitat patches. This can also affect genetic variation, both in terms of diversity (how much genetic variation is there?) and structure (how is the genetic variation distributed in space?).  In this project, we are evaluating genetic fragmentation effects in a small marsupial, the gray slender mouse opossum (Marmosops incanus) in the Atlantic coastal forest of Brazil.  Animals were live-captured in three landscapes that differ in their degree of fragmentation, with 100, 50, or 30% of forest cover remaining in each landscape. All animals were then genotyped using 13 highly variable microsatellite markers, to address three inter-related questions: 1) Are the three landscapes different with respect to genetic diversity?; 2) Are the three landscapes different with respect to genetic structure?; and 3) What patch-characteristics best explain observed patterns in genetic variation (i.e., diversity and structure)? This project is conducted in close collaboration with Prof. Renata Pardini at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and is part of the Mata Atlantica project at the IZW (LINK to project website).

Scientific publications:

Spear, S.F., Balkenhol, N., Fortin, M-J., McRae, B.H., Scribner, K. (accepted) Use of resistance surfaces for landscape genetic studies: Considerations for parameterization and analysis. Molecular Ecology (Invited contribution to a special issue on landscape genetics)

Dunn, J.D., Barnowe-Meyer, K.K., Gebhardt, K.J., Balkenhol, N., Waits, L.P., Byers, J.A. (in press) Ten polymorphic microsatellite markers for pronghorn (Antilocapra americana). Conservation Genetics Resources doi: 10.1007/s12686-009-9166-9

Balkenhol, N. & Waits, L.P. (2009) Molecular Road Ecology: Exploring the potential of molecular genetics to investigate the impacts of transportation on wildlife. Molecular Ecology 18: 4151-4164. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2009.04322.x  (Invited review)

Balkenhol, N., Waits, L.P., Dezzani, R. (2009) Statistical approaches in landscape genetics: An evaluation of methods for linking landscape and genetic data.  Ecography 32: 818-830. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2009.05807.x

Balkenhol, N., Gugerli, F., Cushman, S., Waits, L., Coulon, A., Arntzen, J.W., Holderegger, R., Wagner, H. (2009) Identifying future research needs in landscape genetics: where to from here? Landscape Ecology 24:455–463. doi: 10.1007/s10980-009-9334-z

Balkenhol, N. & Waits L.P. (2007) A comparison of current methods for linking genetic variation to landscape heterogeneity using simulated data. Pgs 309-310 in: Bunce, R.G.H., R.H.G. Jongman, L. Hojas, S. Weel (Eds.) 25 years of Landscape Ecology: Scientific Principles in Practice. (Proceedings of the 7th IALE World Congress 8 – 12 July Wageningen, The Netherlands, IALE Publication Series 4).