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The recent development of lightweight GPS collars has enabled medium-to-small sized animals to be tracked via GPS telemetry. Evaluation of the performance and accuracy of GPS collars is largely confined to devices designed for large animals for deployment in natural environments. This study aimed to assess the performance of lightweight GPS collars within a suburban environment, which may be different from natural environments in a way that is relevant to satellite signal acquisition. We assessed the effects of vegetation complexity, sky availability (percentage of clear sky not obstructed by natural or artificial features of the environment), proximity to buildings, and satellite geometry on fix success rate (FSR) and location error (LE) for lightweight GPS collars within a suburban environment. Sky availability had the largest affect on FSR, while LE was influenced by sky availability, vegetation complexity, and HDOP (Horizontal Dilution of Precision). Despite the complexity and modified nature of suburban areas, values for FSR ( = 90.6%) and LE ( = 30.1 m) obtained within the suburban environment are comparable to those from previous evaluations of GPS collars designed for larger animals and within less built-up environments. Due to fine-scale patchiness of habitat within urban environments, it is recommended that resource selection methods that are not reliant on buffer sizes be utilised for selection studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demography impacts the observed standing level of genetic diversity present in populations. Distinguishing the relative impacts of demography from selection requires a baseline of expressed gene variation in naturally occurring populations. Six nuclear genes were sequenced to estimate the patterns and levels of genetic diversity in natural Arabidopsis lyrata subsp. petraea populations that differ in demographic histories since the Pleistocene. As expected, northern European populations have genetic signatures of a strong population bottleneck likely due to glaciation during the Pleistocene. Levels of diversity in the northern populations are about half of that in central European populations. Bayesian estimates of historical population size changes indicate that central European populations also have signatures of population size change since the last glacial maxima, suggesting that these populations are not as stable as previously thought. Time since divergence amongst northern European populations is higher than amongst central European populations, suggesting that the northern European populations were established before the Pleistocene and survived glaciation in small separated refugia. Estimates of demography based on expressed genes are complementary to estimates based on microsatellites and transposable elements, elucidating temporal shifts in population dynamics and confirming the importance of marker selection for tests of demography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]