Evaluating surrogates of genetic diversity for conservation planning.

Protected area systems should conserve intra-specific genetic diversity. Since genetic data require resources to obtain, several approaches have been proposed for generating plans for protected area systems (prioritizations) when genetic data are not available. Yet such surrogate-based approaches remain poorly tested. We evaluated the effectiveness of potential surrogate-based approaches using microsatellite genetic data collected across the Iberian Peninsula for seven amphibian and three reptilian species. Here we show that long-term habitat suitability is not an effective surrogate for representing sites containing high genetic diversity (allelic richness). Indeed, prioritizations based on long-term habitat suitability had similar performance to randomly establishing protected areas. We also found that geographic distances and resistance distances based on contemporary habitat suitability are not always effective surrogates for identifying combinations of sites that contain individuals with different genetic compositions. Our results demonstrate that population genetic data based on commonly used neutral markers can inform prioritizations and we could not find an adequate substitute. Conservation planners will need to weigh the potential benefits of using genetic data against their acquisition costs. Article Impact Statement: Conservation plans generated using supposed surrogates of genetic data can perform much worse than those based directly on genetic data. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.