Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis of Heterozygosity and Geographic Distribution in Populations of Desmognathus fuscus (Amphibia: Plethodontidae)

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Abstract
Populations (27) of the salamander species D. fuscus were surveyed electrophoretically for 26 protein producing loci. Average heterozygosity (H) and number of alleles per locus (Xa) were determined. The spatial distributions of H aned Xa were then studied using spatial autocorrelation analysis to determine whether the observed patterns of distribution could be explained by elevation, latitude corrected by elevation, geographic location, number of syntopic congeners, number of sympatric salamanders or distance from the geographic center of the species'' distribution. Spatial autocorrelation of multiple regression residuals demonstrated that the original distribution of H values could best be explained by the number of syntopic congeners at each sample locality. Results support the niche width-variation hypothesis.