Léa Auclair, Cécile Vanpé, Guillaume Chapron, Pierre-Yves Quenette, Alexandre Robert
{"title":"Inbreeding Depression Across Multiple Life-History Traits in a Long-Lived Mammal.","authors":"Léa Auclair, Cécile Vanpé, Guillaume Chapron, Pierre-Yves Quenette, Alexandre Robert","doi":"10.1111/mec.70123","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Inbreeding depression is widely recognised as a near-universal phenomenon of high conservation concern, particularly as wild populations continue to decline. However, most research to date has focused on early life stages, leaving later-life effects comparatively understudied, especially for wild populations of long-lived species. The Pyrenean brown bear (Ursus arctos), characterised by a small population, high levels of inbreeding and conflicts with human activities, embodies the conservation challenges faced by many large mammals. We analysed 27 years of monitoring data to quantify inbreeding depression across multiple life stages on survival, reproduction and dispersal. Our results reveal strong inbreeding depression effects, particularly in early life stages, including a reduction in litter size and in natal dispersal distance. In adults, more inbred mothers exhibit lower cub survival. The cumulative effect of inbreeding, as measured by lifetime breeding success, also shows a negative impact. These findings highlight the necessity of assessing inbreeding depression across the entire life cycle to accurately evaluate its threat to population dynamics and viability. Such comprehensive assessments will become increasingly essential for wild plant and animal populations constrained by habitat destruction, human-wildlife conflict and harvesting pressures.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":" ","pages":"e70123"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Molecular Ecology","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70123","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Inbreeding depression is widely recognised as a near-universal phenomenon of high conservation concern, particularly as wild populations continue to decline. However, most research to date has focused on early life stages, leaving later-life effects comparatively understudied, especially for wild populations of long-lived species. The Pyrenean brown bear (Ursus arctos), characterised by a small population, high levels of inbreeding and conflicts with human activities, embodies the conservation challenges faced by many large mammals. We analysed 27 years of monitoring data to quantify inbreeding depression across multiple life stages on survival, reproduction and dispersal. Our results reveal strong inbreeding depression effects, particularly in early life stages, including a reduction in litter size and in natal dispersal distance. In adults, more inbred mothers exhibit lower cub survival. The cumulative effect of inbreeding, as measured by lifetime breeding success, also shows a negative impact. These findings highlight the necessity of assessing inbreeding depression across the entire life cycle to accurately evaluate its threat to population dynamics and viability. Such comprehensive assessments will become increasingly essential for wild plant and animal populations constrained by habitat destruction, human-wildlife conflict and harvesting pressures.
期刊介绍:
Molecular Ecology publishes papers that utilize molecular genetic techniques to address consequential questions in ecology, evolution, behaviour and conservation. Studies may employ neutral markers for inference about ecological and evolutionary processes or examine ecologically important genes and their products directly. We discourage papers that are primarily descriptive and are relevant only to the taxon being studied. Papers reporting on molecular marker development, molecular diagnostics, barcoding, or DNA taxonomy, or technical methods should be re-directed to our sister journal, Molecular Ecology Resources. Likewise, papers with a strongly applied focus should be submitted to Evolutionary Applications. Research areas of interest to Molecular Ecology include:
* population structure and phylogeography
* reproductive strategies
* relatedness and kin selection
* sex allocation
* population genetic theory
* analytical methods development
* conservation genetics
* speciation genetics
* microbial biodiversity
* evolutionary dynamics of QTLs
* ecological interactions
* molecular adaptation and environmental genomics
* impact of genetically modified organisms