Meeting Abstract
Dispersal is a fundamental ecological and evolutionary process. Understanding the mechanisms that influence dispersal is especially important in the context of landscape fragmentation and global climate change. Long distance dispersal has been shown to contribute disproportionately to species persistence in fragmented landscapes and range shifts related to climate change. An individual’s propensity to disperse is dependent on a variety of both extrinsic and intrinsic factors. A spatially explicit mark recapture study is being conducted to better understand the multiple factors (stream heterogeneity, body size and condition, behavior, and resource limitations) influencing dispersal and population dynamics in the stream salamander, Desmognathus brimleyorum. The aim of this study is to effectively make population level inferences about factors influencing dispersal and how it contributes to population dynamics of D. brimleyorum within a stream corridor. It is predicted that there will be an association between survival rates and habitat variation along the stream corridor and that the traits of individuals will correlate with dispersal phenotypes.
