Phylogeography and Genetic Structure in the California Giant Salamander (Dicamptodon ensatus): Impacts of current and historic landscape features.

The California Floristic Province contains numerous ecological regions and a complex geological and geographical history that make it one of the worlds biodiversity hotspots. A number of wide-ranging taxa span across these regions and show complex patterns of dispersal, vicariance and lineage diversification, making localized small ranged species with lower levels of vagility essential to understanding the overall region. Here, we investigate the biogeography and population structure of the California Giant Salamander (Dicamptodon ensatus) (Eschscholtz 1833), an endemic species localized to a narrow coastal region between two areas of biological significance in the California Floristic Province, the North Coast Divide and Monterey Bay.