Research overview: landscape genetics methods for fragmented felid populations

Landscape genetics links genetic patterns to the features of the terrain between populations, a toolkit central to studying fragmentation in cats. This overview surveys the methods, from microsatellites to genome-wide SNPs, and analyses such as isolation-by-resistance, that quantify how roads, development, and habitat gaps impede gene flow. It reviews how these approaches identify barriers, estimate effective population size, and prioritize corridors for species from pumas to lynx to jaguars. The synthesis frames landscape genetics as the empirical backbone of fragmentation conservation, explaining how inferring movement and gene flow from DNA lets researchers detect isolation before it manifests in population decline and target connectivity where it will matter most.