Abstract
It is becoming increasingly clear that successful management of natural populations requires not only preservation of their habitats but also understanding of their genetic structure and adaptive potential. However, most conservation geneticists only use molecular marker traits, yet these may not reflect the adaptive potential of populations. Measures of quantitative genetic variation do better reflect variation in fitness traits, but the distribution of quantitative genetic variation in natural environments is poorly understood. The proposed research focuses on the relation between quantitative and molecular genetic variation in natural populations. I will investigate two main questions in this context. First, how does landscape structure affect the distribution of quantitative and molecular genetic variation in the common frog living in fragmented and in continuous landscapes? Second, what is the quantitative genetic response of larval life history of the moor frog to environmental acidification? This research will increase our understanding of the adaptive potential of natural populations and how well this potential is reflected in neutral molecular markers. It will also lead to direct recommendations for the maintenance of genetic variation and adaptive potential in amphibian populations. As environmental change increases rapidly as a result of anthropogenic activities, the demand for such knowledge is high and will continue to increase in the future.
Sweden