Source: NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
CONSERVATION ECOLOGY OF AQUATIC SYSTEMS IN ARID LANDS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
NEW
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1002695
Grant No.
(N/A)
Project No.
NMCowley-13H
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Apr 1, 2014
Project End Date
Sep 30, 2018
Grant Year
(N/A)
Project Director
Cowley, D.
Recipient Organization
NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY
1620 STANDLEY DR ACADEMIC RESH A RM 110
LAS CRUCES,NM 88003-1239
Performing Department
Fisheries & Wildlife
Non Technical Summary
Rivers and ephemeral ponds in arid regions expand with precipitation runoff and contract with drought in long term natural cycles (Lake 2000). The fishes and other biota endemic to these extreme river and pond environments are interesting in their ability to adapt and flourish under predictably variable aquatic regimes (Lytle and Poff 2004). For example, fish species of dryland rivers are adept at seeking refuge from floods and droughts (Magoulick and Kobza 2003; Dodds et al. 2004). The crustacean species of ephemeral ponds are equally interesting in their ability to flourish in the extreme environments of desert ponds. The proposed research seeks to advance knowledge of desert rivers and ponds with regard to ecology, evolution and conservation of their aquatic species. Questions will be addressed in multiple disciplines of science including genetics, population biology, community ecology, and ecosystem science. Studying species' biology from many perspectives is necessary to formulate sustainable conservation programs that balance the needs of native species with human needs. It is imperative to view these problems within a social-ecological systems context, where people depend on ecosystem resources and services and ecosystem dynamics are influenced by human activities (Berkes et al. 2003; Turner et al. 2003; Steffen et al. 2004).
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
60%
Developmental
20%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
13503991190100%
Goals / Objectives
Understand ecological requirements of native aquatic species.Study the demography and genetics of populations.Study biotic community organization and how humans modify landscapes and their aquatic ecosystems.
Project Methods
EFFORTSPrimary focus of the proposed work is to develop new knowledge on aquatic species and ecosystems in arid lands and to disseminate this new knowledge to other scientists and agency personnel working in natural resources management. Collaborations and coordinations will be made with water managers and producers for access to study areas and to facilitate greater appreciation of native aquatic species. Additional collaborations with be continued with my institution's cooperative extension specialists to ensure dissemination of results and information to appropriate audiences outside academia. Results of the proposed work will also be incorporated into classroom presentations by the PI to undergraduate and graduate students at his institution.Outputs will be evaluated through student course evaluations, commentaries from natural resource professionals, and citations to published works as documented by Web of Science, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate.EcologyStudy ecosystems will include lotic and lentic habitats in western North America with an emphasis on ecosystems in water-stressed regions. Species of focal interest include native fishes of New Mexico, including the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. Additional invertebrate species of interest include fairy and tadpole shrimps, which are primitive branchiopod crustaceans that occur in ephemeral waters including playa lakes, livestock watering ponds, and flood retention ponds in southern New Mexico. Species will be studied from a population level to larger geographic perspectives. For vertebrate species, the PI plans to examine existing datasets and no collection of vertebrates or experimentation on vertebrates is planned or included in this proposal.Demography and GeneticsStudies will be conducted on the demography and genetics of native fish and invertebrate populations. Methods will include characterization and comparison of populations with molecular genetic markers, measurement of age class structure and fecundity, simulation of population fates, estimation of effective population sizes, and the effects of selection and drift on population-level genetic diversity. Linkages will be studied between genetic markers and measures of population success, or fitness. For vertebrate species, the PI plans to examine existing datasets and no collection of vertebrates or experimentation on vertebrates is planned or included in this proposal.Communities and EcosystemsBiotic communities of aquatic invertebrates will be studied across a range of environmental conditions and at hierarchical scales spanning streams, watersheds, and major river drainages. Studies will be conducted to learn more about the composition of fish, invertebrate, and periphyton communities across spatial scales. Ephemeral desert ponds will be surveyed to document species occurrences and to learn fundamental facts about genome-environment interactions. Existing datasets on fish and invertebrates will also be evaluated but new collections of vertebrates or experimentation on vertebrates is not planned or included in this proposal.

Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences for the reporting period included state and federal natural resource agencies, academic scientists, and undergraduate and graduate students. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One master's thesis student and one PhD student received training under the project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In addition to journal publications listed elsewhere, my PhD student and I made invited presentations to the Middle Rio Grande Adaptive Management Program on preliminary results from our development of a simulation model for the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I plan to complete two manuscripts on a simulation model for Rio Grande silvery minnow. In addition, I will work on developing a metapopulation simulation model for the same species. I have another paper in progress using spatial stream network models and I have been invited to present my work in a symposium in May.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Two papers were published that completed my work on genetics of the tadpole shrimp (Triops newberryi). One paper examined the putative role of males in some populations and concluded that there is little evidence they contribute to genetic profiles of offspring. The other paper published described the first transcriptome analysis and differential gene expression in Triops newberryi. With a PhD student dissertation research, we are studying the demography of the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow (Hybognathus amarus) and using simulations as a tool for evaluating possible effects of alternate water management strategies. That work is nearing completion of a manuscript for journal publication. Additionally, I published with a Spanish coauthor, results of a spatial stream network analysis that identified landscape level factors affecting the endangered freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) and its larval fish hosts Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and brown trout (Salmo trutta). That paper was awarded "Editors Choice" in Diversity and Distributions.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Horn, RL & DE Cowley. 2016. Self-fertilization and the role of males in populations of tadpole shrimp (Branchiopoda: Notostraca: Triops). Journal of Heredity 107:518-526.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Horn, RL, N Devitt, T. Ramaraj, FD Shilkey & DE Cowley. 2017. De novo assembly of a tadpole shrimp (Triops newberryi) transcriptome and preliminary differential gene expression analysis. Molecular Ecology Resources 17:161-171.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Lois, S & DE Cowley. 2017. Editor's Choice: Conservation of interacting species in network constrained environments. Diversity & Distributions 23:1235-1245.


Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:1. Scientists and agency personnel working in natural resource management. 2. Academic faculty teaching natural resources management topics in secondary and post-secondary institutions. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project provided professional training for two PhD students, Rebekah Horn and Michael Hatch. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes, results were disseminated in the form of peer-reviewed journal papers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Complete revisions to the two genetics papers on tadpole shrimp (T. newberryi) and draft a manuscript describing a sensitivity and elasticity analysis for fish demography will be produced. Further work will be done to prepare a conservation-oriented paper on the pearl mussel.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Progress was made on all three goals. Two manuscripts completed and submitted for publication, although both require revision that is currently on-going. The first paper describes the transcriptome of Triops newberryi nauplii reared in native and nonnative water conditions. Results are in revision for Molecular Ecology Resources. The second paper is a detailed analysis of mothers and individual offspring aimed at determining the mating system used by this species. This second paper is in revision for Journal of Heredity. Progress was made on goal 2 with a new project that was begun to develop a simulation model to evaluate water management alternatives. This approach will use a demographic model for an endangered fish species. Finally, a paper related to goal 3 was published in the Journal of Biogeography.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Lois, S., DE Cowley, A Outeiro, E San Miguel, R Amaro, & P. Ondina. 2015. Spatial extent of biotic interactions affects species distribution and abundance in river networks: the freshwater pearl mussel and its hosts. Journal of Biogeography 42: 229-240.


Progress 04/01/14 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: 1. Scientists and agency personnel working in natural resource management. 2.Academic faculty teaching natural resources management topics in secondary and post-secondary institutions. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project has provided professional training for graduate student Rebekah Horn. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Yes. Results were disseminated in the form of peer-reviewed journal papers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? I plan to continue analyses on the genetics of tadpole shrimp to better elucidate ecological requirements of the different species in the Chihuahuan Desert. I also plan to further extend the work on freshwater mussels to enable development of a conservation framework for parasite-host systems.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Progress was on all goals. Two papers on the genetics of tadpole shrimp were published. The first paper described genetic structure between populations and found that the initial colonizers of an ephemeral pond strongly influence the genetic structure. There was an indication that migratory birds may facilitate colonization of ponds by crustaceans. The second paper used the complete mitochondrial DNA sequences to characterize the phylogenetic relationships between North American species of Triops and species from elsewhere in the world. Significant progress was made on goals 1 and 3, where a paper is in press in the Journal of Biogeography. That paper analyzes distribution and abundance of a freshwater mussel species that uses a fish host during its parasitic larval stage. The analyses show that biotic interactions with fish affect abundance of mussels over a spatial extent of up to 15 km. The analyses further showed that dams that limit fish movements in rivers have strong negative effects of mussel abundance.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Horn, RL, R. Kuehn, V. Drechsel, & DE Cowley. 2014. Discriminating between the effects of founding events and reproductive mode on the genetic structure of Triops populations (Branchiopoda: Notostraca). PLOS One 9(5): e97473
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Horn, RL & DE Cowley. 2014. Evolutionary relationships within the Triops (Branchiopoda: Notostraca) using complete mitochondrial genomes. Journal of Crustacean Biology 34: 795-800.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2014 Citation: Lois, S, DE Cowley, A Outeiro, E San Miguel, R Amaro, & P Ondina. in press. Spatial extent of biotic interactions affects distribution and abundance in river networks: the freshwater pearl mussel and its hosts. Journal of Biogeography: in press.