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Insights into the introduction history and population genetic dynamics of the Argentine black-and-white tegu (Salvator merianae) in Florida

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Abstract

Invasive species are a major threat to global biodiversity. The US state of Florida is especially susceptible to the spread of exotic reptiles due to its subtropical climate, disturbed habitats, and robust pet trade. The Argentine black-and-white tegu (Salvator merianae) is a large, omnivorous lizard currently established in two different regions of Southern Florida. These two populations pose potential threats to sensitive ground nesting species such as gopher tortoises, American crocodiles, and migratory birds. At present, the introduction histories of these populations and the degree to which they are connected by gene flow are largely unknown. To address these issues, we genotyped S. merianae from Hillsborough and Miami-Dade Counties at ten microsatellite loci to assess intrapopulation genetic diversity, the degree of gene flow between populations, and compare the plausibilities of several potential introduction scenarios. Our results indicate that both populations have low genetic diversity [mean number of effective alleles across loci in both populations = 2.09 and are highly differentiated from each other (GST = 0.170; G″ST = 0.545)]. In addition, our results suggest that these populations underwent a bottleneck event prior to their divergence. We discuss what our results suggest about the histories of Florida’s invasive tegu populations, as well as how they inform ongoing management strategies.

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Acknowledgements

JPW and RBP would like to thank their late friend and mentor, David H. Reed, for his advice and support during the earliest phases of this project. We also gratefully acknowledge Jennifer Ketterlin Eckles, Colin Hughes, Tessie Offner, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin Enge, Balm Boyette Scrub Preserve, USDA-APHIS, and the South Florida Water Management Group for providing samples, field resources and assistance, lodging, logistics, and site access.

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Author notes

  1. Jared P. Wood and Stephanie Dowell Beer contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Southwestern Adventist University, 100 W. Hillcrest, Keene, TX, 76059, USA

    Jared P. Wood

  2. US Fish and Wildlife Service, Northeast Fishery Center, 227 Washington Ave., Lamar, PA, 16848, USA

    Stephanie Dowell Beer

  3. Department of Biology, University of Tampa, 401 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, FL, 33606, USA

    Todd S. Campbell

  4. Department of Science and Mathematics, Texas A&M University-San Antonio, One University Way, San Antonio, TX, 78224, USA

    Robert B. Page

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  1. Jared P. Wood
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Correspondence to Jared P. Wood or Robert B. Page.

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Conflict of interest

Jared Wood was directly supported by the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and by the Wallace Endowment to the University of Louisville, Department of Biology. Stephanie Dowell Beer declares that she has no conflict of interest. Todd Campbell received funding for field work from the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Institute for Biological Invasions at the University of Tennessee, and the University of Tampa Dana grant. Robert Page declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

10709_2018_40_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

ESM1_PCA_IndividualPops. Principal component analysis based on raw genotypes of introduced S. merianae populations in Florida, showing Miami-Dade and Hillsborough populations separately. Numbers correspond to individual identification numbers. Individuals 37 and 42 were excluded from the analysis (PDF 44 KB)

10709_2018_40_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

ESM2_kmeans_BIC. Plot depicting the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) as a function of K-means clustering solutions for different values of K (Number of clusters) (PDF 119 KB)

10709_2018_40_MOESM3_ESM.pdf

ESM3_DAPC_Structure_like_plot. Bar plot depicting DAPC cluster membership probabilities. The color scheme is the same as Fig. 4. Letters under each bar indicate the region in which each individual was sampled (H = Hillsborough County, M = Miami-Dade County) (PDF 478 KB)

10709_2018_40_MOESM4_ESM.pdf

ESM4_meanLnProb_Hillsborough. Mean Ln P(D) ± SD for 10 replicate STRUCTURE runs at each value of K using only the Hillsborough data as input (PDF 12 KB)

10709_2018_40_MOESM5_ESM.pdf

ESM5_meanLnProb_MiamiDade. Mean Ln P(D) ± SD for 10 replicate STRUCTURE runs at each value of K using only the Miami-Dade data as input (PDF 13 KB)

10709_2018_40_MOESM6_ESM.docx

ESM6_Introduction scenarios_table. Confidence in scenario selection by DIYABC for the introduction pathway of S. merianae into Florida. Posterior probabilities are based on the logistic approach, implemented by the program, and the type I and type II error rates were calculated based on 100 simulated pseudo-observed data sets (pods) (DOCX 14 KB)

10709_2018_40_MOESM7_ESM.pdf

ESM7_Posterior Probabilities. Plot showing the posterior probability results from the approximate Bayesian computation for seven competing introduction scenarios for S. merianae in Florida (PDF 3 KB)

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Wood, J.P., Beer, S.D., Campbell, T.S. et al. Insights into the introduction history and population genetic dynamics of the Argentine black-and-white tegu (Salvator merianae) in Florida. Genetica 146, 443–459 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-018-0040-0

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