Life Sciences Commons^™

Landscape Genetics Of The Endangered California Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma Californiense) In The Los Vaqueros Watershed, Ryan Neal Vincent

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Genetic diversity is essential for maintaining healthy biological systems, and dispersal-mediated gene flow increases genetic diversity by introducing new alleles to a gene pool. Populations that frequently experience gene flow will show characteristic similarities in allele frequencies. Measuring genetic diversity among many populations across a landscape has proven to be a powerful approach for assessing the ways that habitat discontinuities may affect patterns of gene flow, and in turn, influence allele frequencies and population dynamics. This study examines the landscape-level population genetic structure of the California tiger salamander, Ambystoma californiense, within the Los Vaqueros Watershed of Contra Costa County, …