7842

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7842
• Author: Knopf, F. L.
• Title: Biological Diversity in Wildlife Management.
• USFW Year: 1992.
• USFW - Doc Type: 1992.
• Copyright Material: NO

but represent the most genetically dissimilar species among those analyzed. The most
genetically dissimilar species should be given some preference in management pro-
grams, especially when financial resources are limited and choices must be made as
to which species are conserved (Vane-Wright et al. 1991).
The second general feature of concern in a management program should be the
level of genetic variability. By any measure, the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus vir-
ginianus) is the most genetically variable cervid species among those analyzed and
is among the most genetically variable mammal yet studied (Breshears et al. 1988).
Other things being equal, the most genetically variable species should be given
preference over less variable ones if limited resources force choices in a management
program designed to conserve genetic diversity.
Genetic adaptation is another factor which needs to be taken into account. It would
make no sense to maintain genetic diversity by featuring a biological unit that is not
adapted to the available habitat. For example, a low altitude community or population
that is genetically unique and quite diverse would be inappropriate if the available
habitat were high mountains. Genetic adaptation to such gross environmental dif-
ferences (i.e., high versus low altitude) is not difficult to demonstrate (Ayala 1982),
but it is much more difficult to determine the degree of adaptation in some quantitative
way when the environmental differences are less subtle. It would take considerably
more effort to determine the level of adaptation in many situations than it would the
genetic distances among or variability of the forms involved. Even if quantitative
estimates of the degree of genetic adaptation, distance or variability were available,
a way to combine these characteristics into a decision matrix to decide which species
should be given priority in a management program has not been developed.
Populations and Individuals
Measures of genetic diversity within and among populations of animals are perhaps
the most relevant to many current wildlife management programs. This is because
wildlife biologists often focus on individual populations or metapopulation complexes
for research and management purposes. In addition to within population measures
of genetic diversity, such as heterozygosity, percent polymorphic loci and numbers
of alleles per locus, biologists often use genetic distance or identity values as well
as information about genetic variance partitioning (F-Statistics, Wright 1978, Nei
1977) to compare genetic diversity among populations of animals. Factors such as
gene flow, mating system, genetic drift and selection all interact to create changes
in genetic diversity within and among populations (Crow and Kimura 1970).
Populations may exhibit wide ranges of genetic diversity. Differences in gene
frequencies among populations exist on a local scale within any one community or
among populations in different communities across the landscape. Spatial hetero-
geneity among local populations is a general phenomenon observed in many animal
species and has been especially well studied in vertebrates (Avise and Aquadro 1982,
Gyllensten 1985, Smith et al. 1991, Rhodes 1991, Stangel 1991). For example,
white-tailed deer in South Carolina exhibit significant shifts in gene frequencies over
distances as short as 5 km (Ramsey et al. 1979).
Local differentiation can also occur in the amount of genetic diversity within
populations. For example, multilocus heterozygosity changes with latitude in pop-
ulations of the old-field mouse (Peromyscus polionotus) distributed along the east
coast of the United States (Selander et al. 1971, Figure 4). These changes in population
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