...doesn't get much better than that, at least from the standpoint of subject matter. Turns out, though, that the new isn't too good. A group at Cornell has investigated the impact of 80 years of road contruction in upstate New York on the genetic diversity of timber rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) in the region. As you might imagine, the impact has been to lessen the genetic diversity in hibernacula (quarters in which groups of snakes overwinter) that are significantly isolated by roads. This reinforces studies with many other groups illustrating the effect of anthropogenic fragmentation of habitats is having in reducing local population sizes with the resulting loss of genetic diversity.In this study, which appeared in Conservation Biology, researchers examined some 500 rattlesnakes from 19 hibernacula in four regions. They found that genetic clusters never crossed roads, serving to illustrate that roads are even more of a boundary to the free exchange of genetic material in these snakes than we might have imagined.
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