Tangled Bank Conservation

The Gopher Frog Lithobates Rana Capito Is Currently Petitioned for Listing Under the Endangered Species Act Esa and Is on the National Listing Work Plan as a FY25 Species, Yet, We Still Do Not Fully Understand the Taxonomic Status, or Levels of Genetic Diversity Within the Species a Thorough Understanding of Population Segments, Levels of Genetic Diversity, Historical Trends in Effective Population Size, and Methods to Track Individuals Genetically Across the Range of Gopher Frogs Would Help Unify Managers Acting to Conserve the Species, and Importantly Help Quantify Degrees of Redundancy and Resiliency Across the Range Which Will Inform the Species Status Assessment Ssa as Such, We Propose to Sequence Thousands of Loci From 1,000 Already Collected Gopher Frog Samples Across the Species Range We Will Assess Phylogeographic Structure, Evaluate If Any Distinct Population Segments Exist, Quantify Levels of Genetic Diversity for All Metapopulations, Assess the Possibility of Captive Reintroductions Across the Range, Estimate Changes in Population Sizes Over Recent History, and Test Methods to Identify Individuals Genetically Our Work Will Be Crucial to the Ssa and Help Inform Management Decisions on the Ground for This Petitioned Species