| Summary: | Genetic diversity is theorized to decrease in populations closer to a species' range edge, where habitat may be suboptimal. However, generalist species capable of long-range dispersal may maintain sufficient gene flow to counteract this, though the presence of significant barriers to dispersal (e.g., large water bodies, human-dominated landscapes) may still lead to, and exacerbate, the edge effect. We used microsatellite data for 2,426 gray wolves ( Canis lupus ) from 24 sub-populations (groups) to model how allelic richness and expected heterozygosity varied with two measures of range edge (mainland-island position, latitude, and distance from range center) across >7.3 million km 2 of northern North America. We found that allelic richness and expected heterozygosity of island groups was measurably less than that of mainland groups and that these differences increased with the island's distance to the species' range center in the study area. Our results demonstrate how multiple axes of geographic isolation (distance from range center and island habitation) can act synergistically to erode the genetic diversity of wide-ranging terrestrial vertebrate populations despite the counteracting influence of long-range dispersal ability. These findings emphasize how geographic isolation is a potential threat to the genetic diversity and viability of terrestrial vertebrate populations even among species capable of long-range dispersal. This dataset is comprised of four separate sub-datasets, sourced from Carmichael et al. (2007), Musiani et al. (2007), McNay (2006), and a manuscript in progress (referred to as "MacNulty" in the data files, to be first published in Frevol et al. 2023). The raw data are comprised of sample IDs, latitude and longitude points indicating where the sample was collected or recorded, and microsatellite genetic information. To aid in re-use, the raw genetic data has also been formatted and presented for use with common population genetics software (Genepop, MICROCHECKER, Genetix, FSTAT). The ...
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