The proposed research uses modern, large-scale molecular biological tools to simultaneously address two important questions. First, it quantifies the level of genetic and ecological differentiation that has occurred between two species of salamanders that have been living in separate regions of the United States for the last 3.5 million years. Second, it examines the genetic consequences of hybridization between these two species in central California. In this unique ecological setting, a native, federally-endangered species (the California tiger salamander, Ambystoma californiense) hybridizes with an introduced, invader species (the barred tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum), adding a critical new threat to the California native species. This collaborative research effort brings together research laboratories with great strengths in modern genomic techniques, field ecology, and conservation biology to attempt to understand how hybridization in the wild effects an endangered species, with an ultimate goal of understanding how speciation has occurred in this system, and how to manage the devastating effects of an invasive species.
The broader impacts of this work extend into many aspects of conservation biology and endangered species management. The work brings together academic scientists with federal policy makers to explore the ways in which hybridization can be dealt with as an emerging problem in conservation genetics.
