ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 14 June 2019 doi: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00205 Drilling Down Hotspots of Intraspecific Diversity to Bring Them Into On-Ground Conservation of Threatened Species Mauro Zampiglia 1, Roberta Bisconti 1*, Luigi Maiorano 2, Gaetano Aloise 3, Antonino Siclari 4, Francesco Pellegrino 3, Giuseppe Martino 4, Alice Pezzarossa 1, Andrea Chiocchio 1, Chiara Martino 4, Giuseppe Nascetti 1 and Daniele Canestrelli 1 1 Department of Ecological and Biological Science, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy, 2 Department of Biology and Biotechnologies “Charles Darwin”, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy, 3 Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy, 4 Aspromonte National Park, Santo Stefano in Aspromonte, Italy Edited by: Melanie April Murphy, University of Wyoming, United States Unprecedented rates of biodiversity loss raise the urgency for preserving species Reviewed by: ability to cope with ongoing global changes. An approach in this direction is to target Joana Isabel Robalo, intra-specific hotspots of genetic diversity as conservation priorities. However, these University Institute of Psychological, Social and Life Sciences, Portugal hotspots are often identified by sampling at a spatial resolution too coarse to be useful Catherine I. Cullingham, in practical management of threatened species, hindering the long-appealed dialog University of Alberta, Canada between conservation stakeholders and conservation genetic researchers. Here, we *Correspondence: Roberta Bisconti investigated the spatial and temporal variation in species presence, genetic diversity,
[email protected] as well as potential risk factors, within a previously identified hotspot of genetic diversity for the endangered Apennine yellow-bellied toad Bombina pachypus. Our results show Specialty section: This article was submitted to that this hotspot is neither a geographically homogeneous nor a temporally stable unit.