Immediate and long-term genetic consequences of linear transport
infrastructure: can fauna crossing mitigate its cost?
Abstract
Linear infrastructure stands as one of the main culprits of
anthropogenically caused biodiversity decline. As it fragments
landscapes, it ultimately results in a myriad of direct and indirect
ecological consequences for wildlife. As transportation networks will
continue to grow under increasing human population growth, biodiversity
will continue to decline making the need to understand and mitigate
their impact on species an urgent need for conservation worldwide. The
implementation of mitigation measures to alleviate the barrier effect
produced by linear transport infrastructure on local fauna is not new,
and research has shown that their effectiveness has been shown to be
influenced by their design, their placement and the biology of the
impacted species. Our understanding of their effectiveness in preventing
the longer-term impacts of linear transport infrastructure on habitat
connectivity via gene flow, however, remains poorly understood. Here, we
used a pre- and post-habitat fragmentation genetic dataset collected as
part of an extensive Koala Management Program to ask questions about the
immediate and predicted longer-term genetic consequences of linear
transport infrastructure on the impacted species. Importantly, using
forward migration simulations, we show that to preserve connectivity
would need to result in around 20% of the population mixing to avoid
long-term genetic drift. These results have important consequences for
the management of species at the forefront of linear infrastructure. In
particular, the study shows the importance of considering gene flow in
our assessment of the effectiveness of fauna crossings.