A Dataset of Amphibian Species in U.S. National Parks.

National parks and other protected areas are important for preserving landscapes and biodiversity worldwide. An essential component of the mission of the United States (U.S.

SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT OF IN EASTERN HELLBENDERS () WITH TERBINAFINE.

In 2019, two wild-caught adult female eastern hellbenders () received a preshipment examination and were individually swabbed for chytrid testing via quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Physical examination was unremarkable. Both females tested positive for () and negative for ().

Multiscale assessment of functional connectivity: Landscape genetics of eastern indigo snakes in an anthropogenically fragmented landscape in central Florida.

Landscape features can strongly influence gene flow and the strength and direction of these effects may vary across spatial scales. However, few studies have evaluated methodological approaches for selecting spatial scales in landscape genetics analyses, in part because of computational challenges associated with optimizing landscape resistance surfaces (LRS). We used the federally threatened eastern indigo snake (Drymarchon couperi) in central Florida as a case study with which to compare the importance of landscape features and their scales of effect in influencing gene flow.

Complementary Network-Based Approaches for Exploring Genetic Structure and Functional Connectivity in Two Vulnerable, Endemic Ground Squirrels.

The persistence of small populations is influenced by genetic structure and functional connectivity. We used two network-based approaches to understand the persistence of the northern Idaho ground squirrel ( and the southern Idaho ground squirrel (), two congeners of conservation concern. These graph theoretic approaches are conventionally applied to social or transportation networks, but here are used to study population persistence and connectivity.

Navigating the pitfalls and promise of landscape genetics.

The field of landscape genetics has been evolving rapidly since its emergence in the early 2000s. New applications, techniques and criticisms of techniques appear like clockwork with each new journal issue. The developments are an encouraging, and at times bewildering, sign of progress in an exciting new field of study.

Rangewide landscape genetics of an endemic Pacific northwestern salamander.

A species' genetic structure often varies in response to ecological and landscape processes that differ throughout the species' geographic range, yet landscape genetics studies are rarely spatially replicated. The Cope's giant salamander (Dicamptodon copei) is a neotenic, dispersal-limited amphibian with a restricted geographic range in the Pacific northwestern USA. We investigated which landscape factors affect D.

Genetic structure among coastal tailed frog populations at Mount St. Helens is moderated by post-disturbance management.

Catastrophic disturbances often provide "natural laboratories" that allow for greater understanding of ecological processes and response of natural populations. The 1980 eruption of the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington, USA, provided a unique opportunity to test biotic effects of a large-scale stochastic disturbance, as well as the influence of post-disturbance management.

Current and historical drivers of landscape genetic structure differ in core and peripheral salamander populations.

With predicted decreases in genetic diversity and greater genetic differentiation at range peripheries relative to their cores, it can be difficult to distinguish between the roles of current disturbance versus historic processes in shaping contemporary genetic patterns. To address this problem, we test for differences in historic demography and landscape genetic structure of coastal giant salamanders (Dicamptodon tenebrosus) in two core regions (Washington State, United States) versus the species' northern peripheral region (British Columbia, Canada) where the species is listed as threatened. Coalescent-based demographic simulations were consistent with a pattern of post-glacial range expansion, with both ancestral and current estimates of effective population size being much larger within the core region relative to the periphery.

New microsatellite markers for examining genetic variation in peripheral and core populations of the Coastal Giant Salamander (Dicamptodon tenebrosus).

The Coastal Giant Salamander (Dicamptodon tenebrosus) is classified as threatened at the northern periphery of its range in British Columbia (BC), Canada, primarily due to forestry practices and habitat fragmentation. Characterising dispersal behaviour and population connectivity is therefore a priority for this region, while genetic differentiation in core versus peripheral locations remains unstudied in this wide-ranging species. We present seven new polymorphic microsatellite markers for use in population genetic analyses of D.

Use of resistance surfaces for landscape genetic studies: considerations for parameterization and analysis.

Measures of genetic structure among individuals or populations collected at different spatial locations across a landscape are commonly used as surrogate measures of functional (i.e. demographic or genetic) connectivity.

Landscape genetics: where are we now?

Landscape genetics has seen rapid growth in number of publications since the term was coined in 2003. An extensive literature search from 1998 to 2008 using keywords associated with landscape genetics yielded 655 articles encompassing a vast array of study organisms, study designs and methodology. These publications were screened to identify 174 studies that explicitly incorporated at least one landscape variable with genetic data.

Landscape genetic structure of coastal tailed frogs (Ascaphus truei) in protected vs. managed forests.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are the leading causes of species' declines and extinctions. A key component of studying population response to habitat alteration is to understand how fragmentation affects population connectivity in disturbed landscapes. We used landscape genetic analyses to determine how habitat fragmentation due to timber harvest affects genetic population connectivity of the coastal tailed frog (Ascaphus truei), a forest-dwelling, stream-breeding amphibian.

Newly developed polymorphic microsatellite markers for frogs of the genus Ascaphus.

Thirteen polymorphic microsatellite loci were identified and developed for the coastal tailed frog, Ascaphus truei, from sites within the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, USA. These tetranucleotide repeat loci were highly variable, averaging 19 alleles per locus and expected heterozygosity of 0.91.

Landscape genetics of the blotched tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum melanostictum).

The field of landscape genetics has great potential to identify habitat features that influence population genetic structure. To identify landscape correlates of genetic differentiation in a quantitative fashion, we developed a novel approach using geographical information systems analysis. We present data on blotched tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum melanostictum) from 10 sites across the northern range of Yellowstone National Park in Montana and Wyoming, USA.