Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Plains CESU

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The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research to support investigations of the relationship between aquatic system connectivity and genetic-, species-, and ecosystem-scale biological diversity at watershed and landscape scales using the northern leopard frog (Lithobaties pipiens) as a model species. Biological connectivity is expected to be an important factor in the drought resilience of aquatic systems, as speciesâ¿¿ ranges expand or contract in response to climate change. When biotic populations grow, decline, or intermix through migratory or dispersal movements across a landscape, a record of the resulting demographic dynamics can be found in the genetic materials of individuals. In general, larger-scale connectivity (and therefore interbreeding of a larger number of unrelated individuals) is reflected in greater population genetic diversity (e.g., heterozygosity). Genetic diversity is key to a species ability to adapt to change and thereby influences population persistence, especially under conditions of environmental change. Other genetic indicators also provide a record related to the strength of population mixing, which can be used as a measure of landscape level connectivity, effective population size, which is linked to extinction risk, and population genetic structure, which can be used to better understand demographic (e.g., source-sink population) dynamics. The northern leopard frog is a model species of aquatic habitat complementarity, a strategy in which a species uses multiple aquatic system types (e.g., wetlands, lakes, streams) over the course of its life cycle, and over longer-term climate cycles of habitat availability.

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