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Maureen Ryan meryan@ucdavis.edu Degrees:B.A., Georgetown University |
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Research:I'm interested in how environmental variation promotes diversity within species and communities, and how mechanisms such as the storage effect that function through environmental variation can affect endangered species in particular. My research focuses on a grassland salamander community in the Central Valley of California that includes the threatened California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense), the California newt (Taricha torosa) and the introduced barred tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum mavortium), as well as hybrid californiense-mavortium tiger salamanders. I'm using a combination of artificial pond experiments and field experiments to look at whether and how environmental variation promotes coexistence between the two native species, Ambystoma californiense and Taricha torosa, and how coexistence mechanisms operating in the native community are influenced by the addition of Ambystoma tigrinum mavortium and hybrid salamanders. Additionally, I'm looking at how environmental variation influences hybridization dynamics between Ambystoma californiense and Ambystoma tigrinum mavortium and whether mechanisms associated with environmental variation can contribute to the maintenance of genetic polymorphism within hybridizing populations of tiger salamanders. Besides experiments, I'm using theoretical modeling and data from field surveys/sampling to investigate how dispersal and landscape structure interact with local community dynamics to influence species diversity and hybrid spread on a regional scale. From a conservation perspective, my work is motivated by an interest in how landscape alteration may influence amphibian diversity and species coexistence within extant communities, and in particular how common pond manipulations and the loss of vernal pools might influence California tiger salamander populations. |
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