Data from: Recent climate change and historical population structure predict spatial patterns of admixture between two host-specialized pine sawfly species [Genome resequencing data]
<p dir="ltr">Human disturbance can have profound effects on biodiversity, including increasing hybridization between reproductively isolated
species. One approach for understanding how human activity affects hybridization dynamics is to evaluate correlations between
disturbance (e.g., urbanization, temperature change) and hybridization. Because variation in hybridization can also arise
from historical factors unrelated to recent human disturbance, it is essential to account for population structure to avoid spurious
correlations. Here, we combine environmental and high-coverage
whole-genome
resequencing data to investigate how human
disturbance and population structure affect hybridization dynamics between a pair of pine sawflies adapted to different pines,
<i>Neodiprion lecontei</i> and <i>Neodiprion pinetum</i>. We find that <i>N. lecontei</i> and <i>N. pinetum</i> exhibit strikingly different patterns of population
structure, which we hypothesize stem from differences in host use. We also find that recent admixture is both asymmetric
and geographically variable. Linear regression analyses reveal that admixture proportion is predicted by indirect human disturbance
(i.e., climate change) and not direct human disturbance (e.g., urbanization) in both <i>N. lecontei</i> and <i>N. pinetum</i>. Lastly, in
<i>N. pinetum</i>, we find evidence of a spurious association between admixture and direct human disturbance that disappears when
regression models account for population structure via inclusion of genetic principal component scores as covariates. Together,
our data suggest that indirect human disturbance and population structure both contribute to geographic variation in admixture
between <i>N. lecontei</i> and <i>N. pinetum</i>. Our study also highlights the importance of adequately controlling for population structure
when attempting to identify environmental predictors (human disturbance-related
or not) of hybridization.</p>
Funding
National Science Foundation: DEB-CAREER-1750946
National Science Foundation: DEB-2348574
Population genomic analysis of the causes and consequences of human-mediated hybridization in insect pest populations