Effects of population characteristics and structure on estimates of effective population size in a house sparrow metapopulation

Abstract

Effective population size (Ne) is a key parameter to understand evolutionary processes and the viability of endangered populations as it determines the rate of genetic drift and inbreeding. Low Ne can lead to inbreeding depression and reduced population adaptability. In this study, we estimated contemporary Ne using genetic estimators (LDNE, ONeSAMP, MLNE and CoNe) as well as a demographic estimator in a natural insular house sparrow metapopulation. We investigated whether population characteristics (population size, sex ratio, immigration rate, variance in population size and population growth rate) explained variation within and among populations in the ratio of effective to census population size (Ne/Nc). In general, Ne/Nc ratios increased with immigration rates. Genetic Ne was much larger than demographic Ne, probably due to a greater effect of immigration on genetic than demographic processes in local populations. Moreover, although estimates of genetic Ne seemed to track Nc quite well, the genetic Ne-estimates were often larger than Nc within populations. Estimates of genetic Ne for the metapopulation were however within the expected range (