Population Graphs and Landscape Genetics

Dyer RJ. 2015. Population graphs and landscape genetics. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 46: 327-342. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054150

Abstract

At the heart of the analyses of landscape genetics are isolation models seeking to explain either interindividual or interpopulation connectivity. These models use spatial, ecological, and topographic predictor variables measured between sites to explain observed genetic variation. During the past decade, these models have adopted increasingly sophisticated techniques to quantify intervening physical and ecological spaces. However, they are restrained by rather mundane approaches to characterizing the genetic components of connectivity. Population Graphs are one approach to improving the quantification of genetic covariance used in models of landscape genetics. I explain the construction of the Population Graph framework, its strengths and weaknesses, and provide examples of how it has been used in landscape and population genetics during the past decade.