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Genetic effects of habitat contraction on Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus lumholtzi) in the Australian Wet Tropics

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Abstract

Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo (Dendrolaguslumholtzi) is one of two species oftree-kangaroo resident in the tropicalrainforests of north-eastern Australia. Thespecies is confined to the Wet Tropics region,with its distribution centred on the AthertonTablelands. While D. lumholtzi wasexposed to periodic large-scale climaticfluctuations during the Quaternary that haveeffectively acted as natural fragmentationevents, the species is currently under pressurefrom anthropogenic disturbance and habitatfragmentation. This study aimed to assess thelevel of genetic diversity in D.lumholtzi by examining hypervariablemicrosatellite loci and the control region ofmitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in 21 individualsfrom a single 20 ha forest fragment, and from afurther 24 animals collected throughout theAtherton Tablelands. Results suggest that D. lumholtzi has relatively low levels ofgenetic diversity which is uniformlydistributed throughout the Atherton Tablelands;a pattern congruent with data from many othervertebrates endemic to the Australian WetTropics. It is suggested that Pleistoceneclimatic fluctuations, which resulted inlarge-scale rainforest contractions, haveimposed an ancient population bottleneck on theancestral D. lumholtzi population. Theapparent over-riding influence of thesenatural, historical effects on the geneticstructure of D. lumholtzi populations,will complicate attempts to assess the geneticimpact of current anthropogenic habitat lossand fragmentation.

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Author notes

  1. Graeme R. Newell

    Present address: Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, P.O. Box 137, Heidelberg, Victoria, 3084, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Division of Environmental and Life Sciences, Macquarie University, New South Wales, 2109, Australia

    Jocelyn C. Bowyer & Mark D.B. Eldridge

  2. Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Rainforest Ecology and Management, CSIRO Tropical Forest Research Centre, PO Box 780, Atherton, Qld, 4883, Australia

    Graeme R. Newell

Authors
  1. Jocelyn C. Bowyer
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  2. Graeme R. Newell
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  3. Mark D.B. Eldridge
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Correspondence to Mark D.B. Eldridge.

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Bowyer, J.C., Newell, G.R. & Eldridge, M.D. Genetic effects of habitat contraction on Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus lumholtzi) in the Australian Wet Tropics. Conservation Genetics 3, 59–67 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014246804788

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