Gene Flow and Abundance of a Tropical Fruit Fly in a Horticultural Landscape Mosaic in Eastern Australia Is Limited by Cleared Grazing Land and Area‐Wide Management
ABSTRACT Landscape ecology and genetics provide important analytical frameworks for investigating the effect of environmental features on ecological processes. Few empirical studies, however, have simultaneously tested how landscape characteristics influence spatial patterns of gene flow and abundan...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Evolutionary Applications |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.70097 |
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| author | James L. Ryan Anthony R. Clarke Alexander M. Piper Susan Fuller Peter J. Prentis |
| author_facet | James L. Ryan Anthony R. Clarke Alexander M. Piper Susan Fuller Peter J. Prentis |
| author_sort | James L. Ryan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT Landscape ecology and genetics provide important analytical frameworks for investigating the effect of environmental features on ecological processes. Few empirical studies, however, have simultaneously tested how landscape characteristics influence spatial patterns of gene flow and abundance of pest insects in heterogeneous environments. To address this, we undertook a combined landscape‐ecology/landscape‐genetic study of the tephritid fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni , in the Wide Bay‐Burnett region of Southeast Queensland, Australia. This region contains areas of rainforest, Eucalyptus forest, cleared pasture, residential areas, and two areas of intensive horticulture production; one implementing area‐wide management practices. We collected B. tryoni samples from 26 sites in 2021 during the months of April, August, October, December and the following year during February and April. We used high‐density DArTseq SNP genotyping on samples collected during the 2021 April, August and December sampling periods. We then modelled the contemporary landscape characteristics and management factors influencing gene flow and abundance of this pest species. Genome‐wide SNP analysis estimated infinite effective population sizes at all sites and detected limited genetic structure across the landscape. However, fly abundance varied significantly among habitats, with cleared pasture negatively associated with population abundance and acting as a barrier to gene flow. Additionally, highways in composite with cleared pasture exhibited a very strong barrier effect. Abundance was highest in residential areas and rainforest, lowest in Eucalyptus forest, and reduced in the horticultural region with area‐wide management implemented. We discuss the benefits of collecting simultaneous genetic and ecological datasets for informing and evaluating area‐wide management programmes for insect pests and highlight considerations in the spatial analysis of SNP data when effective population sizes are extremely large. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e620c1a8c0a34d618a0fd613023c17c1 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1752-4571 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Evolutionary Applications |
| spelling | doaj-art-e620c1a8c0a34d618a0fd613023c17c12025-08-20T03:14:13ZengWileyEvolutionary Applications1752-45712025-04-01184n/an/a10.1111/eva.70097Gene Flow and Abundance of a Tropical Fruit Fly in a Horticultural Landscape Mosaic in Eastern Australia Is Limited by Cleared Grazing Land and Area‐Wide ManagementJames L. Ryan0Anthony R. Clarke1Alexander M. Piper2Susan Fuller3Peter J. Prentis4School of Biology and Environmental Science Queensland University of Technology Brisbane Queensland AustraliaSchool of Biology and Environmental Science Queensland University of Technology Brisbane Queensland AustraliaAgriculture Victoria Research, AgriBio Centre Bundoora Victoria AustraliaSchool of Biology and Environmental Science Queensland University of Technology Brisbane Queensland AustraliaSchool of Biology and Environmental Science Queensland University of Technology Brisbane Queensland AustraliaABSTRACT Landscape ecology and genetics provide important analytical frameworks for investigating the effect of environmental features on ecological processes. Few empirical studies, however, have simultaneously tested how landscape characteristics influence spatial patterns of gene flow and abundance of pest insects in heterogeneous environments. To address this, we undertook a combined landscape‐ecology/landscape‐genetic study of the tephritid fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni , in the Wide Bay‐Burnett region of Southeast Queensland, Australia. This region contains areas of rainforest, Eucalyptus forest, cleared pasture, residential areas, and two areas of intensive horticulture production; one implementing area‐wide management practices. We collected B. tryoni samples from 26 sites in 2021 during the months of April, August, October, December and the following year during February and April. We used high‐density DArTseq SNP genotyping on samples collected during the 2021 April, August and December sampling periods. We then modelled the contemporary landscape characteristics and management factors influencing gene flow and abundance of this pest species. Genome‐wide SNP analysis estimated infinite effective population sizes at all sites and detected limited genetic structure across the landscape. However, fly abundance varied significantly among habitats, with cleared pasture negatively associated with population abundance and acting as a barrier to gene flow. Additionally, highways in composite with cleared pasture exhibited a very strong barrier effect. Abundance was highest in residential areas and rainforest, lowest in Eucalyptus forest, and reduced in the horticultural region with area‐wide management implemented. We discuss the benefits of collecting simultaneous genetic and ecological datasets for informing and evaluating area‐wide management programmes for insect pests and highlight considerations in the spatial analysis of SNP data when effective population sizes are extremely large.https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.70097area‐wide managementBactrocera tryonieffective population sizefruit flylandscape ecologylandscape genetics |
| spellingShingle | James L. Ryan Anthony R. Clarke Alexander M. Piper Susan Fuller Peter J. Prentis Gene Flow and Abundance of a Tropical Fruit Fly in a Horticultural Landscape Mosaic in Eastern Australia Is Limited by Cleared Grazing Land and Area‐Wide Management Evolutionary Applications area‐wide management Bactrocera tryoni effective population size fruit fly landscape ecology landscape genetics |
| title | Gene Flow and Abundance of a Tropical Fruit Fly in a Horticultural Landscape Mosaic in Eastern Australia Is Limited by Cleared Grazing Land and Area‐Wide Management |
| title_full | Gene Flow and Abundance of a Tropical Fruit Fly in a Horticultural Landscape Mosaic in Eastern Australia Is Limited by Cleared Grazing Land and Area‐Wide Management |
| title_fullStr | Gene Flow and Abundance of a Tropical Fruit Fly in a Horticultural Landscape Mosaic in Eastern Australia Is Limited by Cleared Grazing Land and Area‐Wide Management |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gene Flow and Abundance of a Tropical Fruit Fly in a Horticultural Landscape Mosaic in Eastern Australia Is Limited by Cleared Grazing Land and Area‐Wide Management |
| title_short | Gene Flow and Abundance of a Tropical Fruit Fly in a Horticultural Landscape Mosaic in Eastern Australia Is Limited by Cleared Grazing Land and Area‐Wide Management |
| title_sort | gene flow and abundance of a tropical fruit fly in a horticultural landscape mosaic in eastern australia is limited by cleared grazing land and area wide management |
| topic | area‐wide management Bactrocera tryoni effective population size fruit fly landscape ecology landscape genetics |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.70097 |
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