Table 1 Correlations between genetic diversity and population size, or its surrogates

From: How closely does genetic diversity in finite populations conform to predictions of neutral theory? Large deficits in regions of low recombination

Taxa (surrogate)

Correlation

Reference

Nuclear molecular markers

 Across species

Animals

0.7

1

Animal species

0.12

2

 Vertebrates

0.35

2

 Invertebrates

−0.08

2

All species

0.81

3

Plants

0.32

4

Fish (abundance)

∼0.7

5

 Populations within species

Diverse taxa

Mean 0.46

3

Animals (island area)

Mean 0.36

3

 Loci subject to balancing selection

MHC across vertebrate species

0.66a

6

Populations within species

 MHC native rats (log island area)

0.61

7

 MHC pocket gophers (allozyme heterozygosity)

0.69

6

 SI alleles

0.93

8

 mtDNA

Vertebrate species

0.45

3

1683 animal species (allozyme heterozygosity)

−0.14NS,b

9

Eutherian mammal orders (allozyme heterozygosity)

0.86b (silent)

10

 

0.84b (total)

 

Mammal species (allozyme heterozygosity)

0.43

11

Mammal species (log body mass)

−0.50a

12

Bird species (log body mass)

−0.30a

12

Fish species (abundance)

0.32–0.43

5

Human populations

0.98

13

  1. aSpearman's ρ.
  2. bKendall's τ.
  3. References: 1, Soulé (1976); 2, Nevo et al. (1984): 3, Frankham (1996); 4, Leimu et al. (2006); 5, McCusker and Bentzen (2010); 6, Zegers (2000); 7, Seddon and Baverstock (1998); 8, Young et al. (2000); 9, Bazin et al. (2006); 10, Mulligan et al. (2006); 11, Nabholz et al. (2008b); 12, Berlin et al. (2007); 13, Atkinson et al. (2008).
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