Assessing abundance-suitability models to prioritize conservation areas for the dwarf caimans in South America.

Species-environment relationships have been extensively explored through species distribution models (SDM) and species abundance models (SAM), which have become key components to understand the spatial ecology and population dynamics directed at biodiversity conservation. Nonetheless, within the internal structure of species' ranges, habitat suitability and species abundance do not always show similar patterns, and using information derived from either SDM or SAM could be incomplete and mislead conservation efforts. We gauged support for the abundance-suitability relationship and used the combined information to prioritize the conservation of South American dwarf caimans ( and ).

Species distribution models predict genetic isolation of Hagen in Selys, 1853 (Odonata, Calopterygidae).

Understanding how past and current environmental conditions shape the demographic and genetic distributions of organisms facilitates our predictions of how future environmental patterns may affect populations. The Canyon Rubyspot damselfly (Odonata: Zygoptera: ) is an insect with a range distribution from Colombia to the arid southwestern United States, where it inhabits shaded mountain streams in the arid southwestern United States. Past spatial fragmentation of habitat and limited dispersal capacity of may cause population isolation and genetic differentiation, and projected climate change may exacerbate isolation by further restricting the species' distribution.

Library preparation method and DNA source influence endogenous DNA recovery from 100-year-old avian museum specimens.

Museum specimens collected prior to cryogenic tissue storage are increasingly being used as genetic resources, and though high-throughput sequencing is becoming more cost-efficient, whole genome sequencing (WGS) of historical DNA (hDNA) remains inefficient and costly due to its short fragment sizes and high loads of exogenous DNA, among other factors. It is also unclear how sequencing efficiency is influenced by DNA sources. We aimed to identify the most efficient method and DNA source for collecting WGS data from avian museum specimens.

Impact of host demography and evolutionary history on endosymbiont molecular evolution: A test in carpenter ants (genus ) and their endosymbionts.

Obligate endosymbioses are tight associations between symbionts and the hosts they live inside. Hosts and their associated obligate endosymbionts generally exhibit codiversification, which has been documented in taxonomically diverse insect lineages. Host demography (e.

Distinct mtDNA lineages in free-ranging (aoudad) from the United States indicate multiple introductions from northern Africa.

Translocation records indicate aoudad () populations in the United States are a product of multiple human-mediated introductions. Two mitochondrial markers (cytochrome , cytb; displacement loop, D loop) and one nuclear gene (prion protein gene exon 3, ) were used to determine: (1) genetic variation, (2) if genetic units correspond to taxonomic designations, (3) the number and geographic origin of translocations, and (4) divergence times. Three phylogenetic analyses (Bayesian inference, maximum likelihood, and parsimony) produced similar topologies with two clades (I and II).