1. Ecological Effects of Roads Connectivity Issues

2. An emerging focus for ecologists Island Press 2003

3. About 1/5 th of the U.S. land area is thought to be impacted in some way by the public road network. (Forman, 2000 Cons. Biol 14(1):31-35)

4. Primary Road Impacts  Vegetation  Structure and composition  Invasive species and pathogens  Wildlife  Mortality  Habitat Connectivity  Aquatic  Hydrology  Sediment  Contaminants

5. Road effects on Wildlife  Mortality  Habitat Connectivity

6. Efforts to reduce wildlife mortality Forman et al. 2003

7. Wildlife Underpasses Banff National Park along the Trans Canada HighwayForman et al. 2003

8. Wildlife Overpasses Barcelona, Spain Forman et al. 2003

9. Structures for facilitating movement

10. Time lags in detecting cumulative road impacts on wildlife

11. Genetic approach to the analysis of connectivity  Analyze allele frequencies from individuals collected across the landscape  Identify “clusters” (populations) of individuals with similar multilocus genotype  Most techniques operate by minimizing Hardy- Weinberg and linkage disequilibria  Assignment of individuals to populations done on probabilistic basis  Use of Bayesian statistics

12. Hardy Weinberg  Hardy Weinberg principle states that in a population mating at random in the absence of evolutionary forces, allele frequencies will remain constant and the relative abundance of each genotype will be defined by: (p+q) 2 = p 2 +2pq+q 2

13. Conditions Necessary To Maintain Constant Allele Frequencies:  Random Mating  No Mutations  Large population Size (no genetic drift)  No Immigration  Equitable Fitness Between All Genotypes.  Departure from H-W equilibrium is an indication that one of the above does not hold

14. A southern California freeway is a physical and social barrier to gene flow in carnivores Riley et al. 2006. Molecular Ecology 15:1733-1741

15. Bobcat Coyote Genetic Populations Home Ranges Radio tel. locations