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The Population and Conservation Genetics of the Marsh Fritillary Butterfly Euphydryas Aurinia in the British Isles

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The Population and Conservation Genetics of the Marsh Fritillary Butterfly Euphydryas Aurinia in the British Isles The population and conservation genetics of the Marsh Fritillary butterfly Euphydryas aurinia in the British Isles. Michelle Louise Davis This thesis is submitted to Edge Hill University in partial fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2019 Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................. 4 Acknowledgments ................................................................................................. 6 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 8 1.1 The Biodiversity Crisis ................................................................................. 8 1.2 The Conservation of Genetic Diversity ....................................................... 9 1.3 The Global Lepidoptera Declines ...............................................................11 1.4 The Marsh Fritillary .....................................................................................13 1.5 Aims .............................................................................................................22 1.6 Microsatellites .............................................................................................22 2 How it used to be in the old days? Genetic variation of the Marsh Fritillary in Ireland. ...................................................................................................................25 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................25 2.2 Method .........................................................................................................34 2.2.1 Site selection and field sample collection. ...............................................34 2.2.2 Laboritary work and analysis ...................................................................39 2.3 Results .........................................................................................................40 2.4 Discussion ...................................................................................................44 3 By Land and By Sea: The effect of island distribution on population differentiation in the Marsh Fritillary butterfly. ...................................................52 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................52 3.2 Method .........................................................................................................59 3.2.1 Site selection and field sample collection. ...............................................59 3.2.2 Laboratory work and analysis .................................................................62 3.3 Results .........................................................................................................63 3.4 Discussion ...................................................................................................66 4 Celtic connections? Utilising the potential of genetic information for conservation management...................................................................................72 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................72 4.2 Method .........................................................................................................82 4.2.1 Site selection and field sample collection. ...............................................82 4.2.2 Laboratory work and analysis .................................................................85 4.3 Results .........................................................................................................87 4.3.1 Cornwall ..................................................................................................87 4.3.2 South Wales ...........................................................................................89 4.4 Discussion ...................................................................................................94 5 There and back again: Assessing the genetic diversity and composition of the reintroduced Marsh Fritillary population in Cumbria. ........................................99 2 5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................99 5.2 Method ....................................................................................................... 108 5.2.1 Site selection and field sample collection. ............................................. 108 4.2.2 Laboratory work and analysis ............................................................... 112 5.3 Results ....................................................................................................... 114 5.3.1 Reintroduced population genetic diversity. ............................................ 114 5.3.2 Comparison with founder populations. .................................................. 114 5.4 Discussion ................................................................................................. 119 6 The butterfly effect: What insights can the Marsh Fritillary provide on wider conservation questions? ................................................................................... 126 6.1 General Discussion ..................................................................................... 126 6.1.1 Sourcing founders for reintroduction ..................................................... 126 6.1.2 Neutral and adaptive measures of variation .......................................... 129 6.1.3 Reintroduction failures .......................................................................... 131 6.1.4 Habitat loss and fragmentation ............................................................. 134 6.1.5 Habitat fragmentation and genetic diversity. ......................................... 136 6.2 Conservation implications and management recommendations for the Marsh Fritillary. ............................................................................................................ 138 6.3 Future work ................................................................................................. 143 References .......................................................................................................... 145 Appendix A: Molecular approaches. ................................................................. 188 Appendix B: Tables of allele frequencies by population. ................................ 191 Table B.1. Allele frequencies in Ireland. ............................................................ 191 Table B.2. Allele frequencies in Scotland. ......................................................... 193 Table B.3. Allele frequencies in Cornwall. ......................................................... 194 Table B.4. Allele frequencies in South Wales. ................................................... 195 Table B.5. Allele frequencies in Cumbria. .......................................................... 200 Appendix C – Detailed regional climate data .................................................... 202 C.1 Scotland ..................................................................................................... 202 C.2 Cornwall ..................................................................................................... 203 C.3 South Wales ............................................................................................... 204 C.4 Cumbria ...................................................................................................... 205 C.5 Ireland ........................................................................................................ 206 Appendix D .......................................................................................................... 209 3 Abstract Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The population and conservation genetics of the Marsh Fritillary butterfly Euphydryas aurinia in the British Isles. Michelle Louise Davis This thesis investigates the ecological genetics of the Marsh Fritillary butterfly in the British Isles using microsatellite markers. This is broken down into four questions. The first question to be addressed is what is the population differentiation across a broad landscape? The second question asks what the population differentiation is on a similar geographical scale when populations are isolated by water? The third question asks what management units can be identified at local and regional scales? The final question addresses the genetic composition and diversity of a reintroduced population with reference to the source populations. This study suggests that movements of <400m occur frequently and within that distance populations cannot be considered separate even when occupying discreet patches of habitat. Movements of >4km occur but infrequently enough for patches this distance apart to be considered separate populations, with significant pairwise Fst values detected at this range. Previous studies, mainly based on observation and recapture studies, have estimated the dispersal range to be between 300m-20km. The upper limit of dispersal was not determined but the 20km previous proposed is commensurate with this study. 4 Strong evidence for spacial structuring and population differentiation was found over relatively short distances (<12km). Isolation by distance was observed only in the most geographically separated dataset
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