Gone With the Water: The Loss of Genetic Variability in Black and Gold Howler Monkeys (Alouatta caraya) Due to Dam Construction

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Luciana Inés Oklander¹  Leandro Jerusalinsky²  Gabriela P. Fernández³  Silviene F. de Oliveira⁴  Mariela Caputo⁵  Daniel Corach⁵  Sandro L. Bonatto⁶ 

[1] CONICET—Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas, Buenos Aires, Argentina;Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Primatas Brazileiros, Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio/CPB), Cabedelo, Brazil;Centro de Bioinvestigaciones (CeBio), Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (UNNOBA-CICBA)/Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires CITNOBA (UNNOBA-CONICET), Pergamino, Argentina;Departamento de Genética e Morfologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Brazil;Departamento de Microbiología, Inmunología, Biotecnología y Genética, Cátedra de Genética Forense y Servicio de Huellas Digitales Genéticas, Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina;Escola de Ciências da Saúde e da Vida, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil;Grupo de Investigación en Genética Aplicada (GIGA), Instituto de Biología Subtropical (IBS), Universidad Nacional de Misiones y Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (UNAM-CONICET), Posadas, Argentina;

关键词: Alouatta caraya;    howler monkeys;    dam construction;    genetic structure;    conservation;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fevo.2022.768652

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Black and gold howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya) inhabit several eco-regions in South America with the highest population densities in riverine forests. Dam construction for electricity production represents a severe human alteration of ecosystems with consequences for primate conservation. To evaluate the possible loss of genetic diversity in A. caraya, we analysed and compared the genetic structure of the species across 22 study sites in Argentina (14), Paraguay (1), and Brazil (7). Four of these study sites (referred to as flooded) were sampled before dam-linked flooding which most likely caused a drastic decline or functional extinction of these populations. The genetic variability of 256 individuals was evaluated using 10 autosomal microsatellites (STRs) and 112 individuals by sequencing a fragment of 507 bp of mtDNA. DNA was extracted from tissue, blood, and faecal samples. Significantly higher values of genetic variability were observed for the flooded populations both in mtDNA and STRs. Population genetic structure showed a K = 1, 2, or 5 depending on the method, separating Argentinian and Paraguayan sites from Brazilian sites and, in the case of K = 5, two clusters were mostly represented by flooded populations. Isolation-by-distance analyses showed that geographic distances influence gene flow. Analytical methods, such as Pairwise Fst’s and Nei’s and regression model of Harpending and Ward, were concordant in detecting significant genetic structuring between flooded and remaining sites examined. Although some sites have very low sample sizes, these samples are of great importance since these sampling sites are currently flooded. Our results show that the study sites where dams were built had the greatest genetic diversity. As A. caraya is currently severely threatened by yellow fever outbreaks, the remaining populations may be more vulnerable to disease outbreaks due to impoverished genetic variability. Accordingly, it is essential to implement management actions to conserve the remaining populations. Our results underline the importance for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) to include data on the genetic structure of species in the affected sites prior to their alteration or destruction. These genetic data are also remarkably important for determining where to relocate specific individuals to help avoid biodiversity loss.

【 授权许可】

Unknown