An Integrative Approach to Conservation Biology

Banta, J. A., Sain, M., Marshall, N., Walters, A., Ford, D., Heffentragger, K., Key, K., Placyk, J., Ford, N., Williams, M., Williams, L., Small, R. Conservation Biology The study of biodiversity from the perspective of preserving , habitats, and ecosystems Restoration Ecology The restoration of habitats and ecosystems “Our idea, in a nutshell, is to reconstruct… a sample of original Wisconsin – a sample of what Dane County looked like when our ancestors arrived here in the 1840s”

-Aldo Leopold at the dedication of the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, 1934 Integrative Conservation Biology

plantevolutionaryecology.org Integrative Conservation Biology

plantevolutionaryecology.org Species Delimitation

Species of conservation interest were often defined based on morphology alone Species Delimitation

Making matters worse, they often co-occur with congeneric species that are not considered rare!

Hibiscus dasycalyx moscheutos H. moscheutos

H. dasycalyx

H. moscheutos

H. moscheutos

H. dasycalyx

H. dasycalyx

H. dasycalyx H. moscheutos

H. dasycalyx Misidentified specimen H. moscheutos Good species

H. moscheutos

H. dasycalyx

H. dasycalyx Good species

H. dasycalyx H. moscheutos

H. dasycalyx

H. moscheutos

H. dasycalyx Bad species

H. dasycalyx

H. moscheutos

H. moscheutos Fusconaia askewi Fusconaia lananensis

Pleurobema riddellii

Integrative Conservation Biology

plantevolutionaryecology.org Ecological Niche Modeling Ecological Niche Modeling Ecological Niche Modeling

Species A Species B

Walker et al. 2009, BMC Evolutionary Biology Fusconaia askewi Fusconaia lananensis

Pleurobema riddellii

Fusconaia askewi Fusconaia lananensis

Pleurobema riddellii

Good Species Other evidence Integrative Conservation Biology

plantevolutionaryecology.org Mussel Restoration: Fish Important!

• 50% of mussel reintroduction programs fail (Cope and Waller, 1995) • One reason is recruitment failure • Mussels cannot recruit without their obligate fish hosts

% Infested with Fish species Caught (n) Infested (n) Infested (%) ≥20 glochidia Glochidia (n) Lepisosteidae Lepisosteus osseus 1 0 0.0 - 0 Lepisosteus platostomus 1 0 0.0 - 0 Clupeidae Dorosoma cepedianum 25 6 24.0 - 16 Cyprinidae Cyprinella lutrensis 632 404 63.9 22.0 5700 Cyprinella venusta 46 33 71.7 18.2 392 Cyprinus carpio 3 0 0.0 - 0 Hybopsis amnis 8 1 12.5 - 1 Lythrurus fumeus 2 0 0.0 - 0 Notemigonus crysoleucas 9 3 33.3 - 17 Notropis texanus 3 2 66.7 - 3 Notropis volucellus 1 0 0.0 - 0 Pimephales promelas 7 1 14.3 - 1 Pimephales vigilax 356 49 13.8 4.1 358 Catostomidae Erimyzon sucetta 3 0 0.0 - 0 Ictiobus bubalus 4 0 0.0 - 0 Ictaluridae Ictalurus punctatus 17 7 41.2 - 32 Noturus gyrinus 2 0 0.0 - 0 Noturus nocturnus 34 5 14.7 - 8 Pylodictis olivaris 5 0 0.0 - 0 Escocidae Esox americanus 3 1 33.3 - 2 Aphredoderidae Aphredoderus sayanus 19 1 5.3 - 1 Atherinidae Labidesthes sicculus 1 1 100.0 - 1 Poeciliidae Gambusia affinis 36 3 8.3 - 3 Fundulidae Fundulus chrysotus 1 0 0.0 - 0 Fundulus notatus 39 4 10.3 - 11 Fundulus olivaceus 1 0 0.0 - 0 Centrarchidae Lepomis cyanellus 3 0 0.0 - 0 Lepomis gulosus 5 0 0.0 - 0 Lepomis humilis 9 0 0.0 - 0 Lepomis macrochirus 41 9 22.0 - 17 Lepomis marginatus 2 0 0.0 - 0 Lepomis megalotis 147 25 17.0 4.0 109 Lepomis microlophus 7 0 0.0 - 0 Lepomis miniatus 4 0 0.0 - 0 Micropterus punctul atus 15 5 33.3 - 7 Micropterus salmoides 11 2 18.2 - 2 Pomoxis annularis 6 0 0.0 - 0 Percidae Etheostoma asprigene 12 3 25.0 - 4 Etheostoma chlorosomum 4 0 0.0 - 0 Etheostoma gracile 5 1 20.0 - 1 Etheostoma histrio 1 0 0.0 - 0 Percina sciera 31 11 35.5 - 33 Sciaenidae Aplodinotus grunniens 4 2 50.0 - 2

Garter snakes

Laevenworthia texana var. albertii reichenbachii Echinocereus

Orconectes maletae Testing Whether Ecological Differentiation Supports the of Three Hibiscus Species in Northeast Melody Sain1, Marsha Williams 1, Lance Williams 1, Jon Playck1, Randall Small2 and Joshua Banta1 1Department of Biological Sciences. University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler TX 2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN Abstract Ecological and evolutionary theory states that sympatric species should be differentiated from each other ecologically if in fact they are truly different species. We tested whether the nomenclature of three congeneric and co-occurring herbaceous perennial marsh (Hibiscus dasycalyx, , and Hibiscus laevis) is supported. Specifically, we used ecological niche modeling methods to test for ecological non-overlap among the species. One of these three species, the Neches River Rose Mallow (H. dasycalyx ) has recently been listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, so determining whether it is, in fact, a unique entity is of special interest. Our study provides another tool besides phylogenetic analysis to help biologists and conservation managers make decisions about species delimitations.

Table 1. Pairwise comparisons of overlap between the predictions of habitat suitability Introduction between the three species of hibiscus. Conclusions The Neches River Rose Mallow (H. We were able to successfully map the potential dasycalyx ) is currently listed as a distribution of H. dasycalyx, H. moscheutos, threatened species under the Endangered and H. laevis. The model was able to Species Act by the USFWS. H. dasycalyx discriminate known localities of the three is a perennial, shrubby, marsh species from other locations, suggesting that it endemic to East Texas (Klipps 1995). This will reliably determine the degree of niche species grows in seasonally wet alluvial overlap amongst the different species and also soils that are flooded in late winter and point to other unknown populations. The three early spring but that dry out in summer species have essentially nested niches: the (TPWD 2011). Several of the historically niches are very similar to one another but H. known sites have declining or extinct laevis is the most generalized and H. populations (Klipps 1995, Mendoza 2004, dasycalyx is the most specialized. This pattern TPWD 2011). Since H. dasycaylx has suggests that H. dasycalyx and its congeners been listed as threatened it is important to may in fact be distinct species ecologically, determine where the target species occurs although not in the way we expected. or is likely to occur along with its In the future, we will determine which specific congeners, because it would aid in aspects of the soil are the most important for identifying potential overlap among niches the three species. We also will construct and delimitating between species. Our phylogenies of H. dasycalyx , H. moscheutos, goal was to create a habitat suitability and H. laevis to determine the degree of maps that shows the best habitats for H. genetic differences among the three species. dasycalyx, H. moscheutos, and H. laevis in East Texas, using Maxent, and to determine what degree of niche overlap occurs between the three hibiscus species. Literature Cited Dudik, M., S. J. Phillips, and R. E. Schapire. 2010. Maxent Methods Figure 1. Habitat suitability model for Hibiscus Figure 2. Habitat suitability model for Hibiscus Version 3.3.3. http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~schapire A maximum entropy based machine learning dasycalyx in East Texas. mosheutos in East Texas. /maxent/. Accessed November 20, 2012. program, Maxent, was used to construct Klips, R.A. 1995. Genetic affinity of the rare eastern potential range maps for H. dasycalyx and its Texas endemic Hibiscus dasycalyx (). congeners (Dudik et al. 2010). The American Journal of Botany 82:1463-1472 Mendoza, E. A. 2004. Genetic diversity within association of two environmental variables Hibiscus dasycalyx , Hibiscus laevis and Hibiscus (geology and soil type) with known localities moscheutos u tilizing ISSR techniques. M.S. of the three species were used to create the dissertation, Stephen F. Austin University, models. The models were then brought into Nacogdoches, TX. ArcGIS to construct a niche overlap model of TPWD. 2011. Neches River rose-mallow fact sheet. the three species. The degree of niche http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/ overlap between each species was wildlife_diversity/texas_rare_species/ petition/neches-river-rosemallow/media/account.pdf. calculated using ENMTools niche overlap Accessed 11-20-2012. (Warren et. Al. 2008). Warren, D.L., R.E. Glor, and M. Turelli. 2008 Environmental Results niche equivalency versus conservatism: quantitative . approaches to niche evolution. Evolution 62:2868-2883 The average test AUC value for the three models were as follows: H. dasycaylx 0.904, H. mosheutos 0.781, and H. laevis 0.807 (Figure 1- 3). This indicates that the models were able Acknowledgements to discriminate the known localities of the We would like to thank US Fish and species from other places on the map. There Wildlife and Texas Parks and Wildlife Figure 3. Habitat suitability model for Hibiscus Figure 4. Niche overlap of Hibiscus dasycalyx, was a high degree of niche overlap between all Department for funding this project. laevis in East Texas. Hibiscus mosheutos, and Hibiiscus laevis in East Texas. species (Table 1. and Figure 4.)

Collaborators Banta Lab Ken Paige, University of Illinois Melody Sain Michael Purugganan, NYU Christina Richards, USF Jennifer Parks John Placyk, UT-Tyler Jazmin Reese Marsha Williams, UT-Tyler Lance Williams, UT-Tyler Jamie Williams Neil Ford, UT-Tyler Brianna Ciara Gloria Coruzzi, NYU Kathy Barthel Ken Birnbaum, NYU Dan Scholes, Univ. of Illinois Entze Chong Ulises Rosas, NYU Jonathan , NYU Funding Miriam Gifford, Univ. of Warwick National Science Foundation Randall Small, U. Tenn. EF-0425759 Angelica Cibrian-Jamarillo, CINESTAV MCB-0929338 Massimo Pigliucci, City College MRI-1229742 Ian Ehrenreich, USC DEB-1146085 Christian Sund, ARL US Fish & Wildlife Service Matthew Servinsky, ARL Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept. David Mackie, ARL Texas Dept. of Transportation James Sumner, ARL Texas Comptroller’s Office University of Texas at Tyler