The Journal of Heredity 2001:92(2)
© 2001 The American Genetic Association 92:180-189
Group-Structured Genetic Models in Analyses of the Population and Behavioral Ecology of Poikilothermic Vertebrates
From the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, 13 Natural Resources Building, East Lansing, MI 48824-1222 (Scribner) and Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Aiken, South Carolina (Chesser). Dr. Chesser is currently at the Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409.
Address correspondence to Kim T. Scribner at the address above or e-mail: scribne3{at}pilot.msu.edu.
Estimates of gene correlations among individuals within and among populations are frequently derived from statistical analyses of genetic data (e.g., F statistics). These measures can be important tools in molecular ecology and conservation, and offer important insights into population breeding structure. Using recently derived theory developed for group-structured populations, we show that fixation indices, when combined with basic population ecological and demographic data can be used to investigate population mating systems and to predict dispersal rates, trajectories and asymptotic levels of fixation indices, and effective population size. Four case studies of poikilothermic vertebrates are used to demonstrate the broad utility of evolutionary and ecological inferences afforded by group-structured models.