Meeting Abstract
Home range and dispersal are fundamental ecological characteristics of a species and molecular markers can provide insights into the consequences of these characteristics. Knowledge of these factors is critical for fine-scale habitat management in a conservation framework. Here, we report an epigenetic and genetic investigation of the Florida Sand Skink to determine its fine-scale dispersal. This small, fossorial lizard is listed as threatened and a species of greatest conservation need. They are precinctive to the highly imperiled Florida scrub habitat, which is fire dependent, highly heterogenous, and now exists as a series of fragmented habitat patches. We use multiple microsatellite loci to screen genetic characteristics and epiRADseq to measure DNA methylation. We address the molecular rationale of why individuals disperse, answer the basic question of how far they disperse, and estimate their home range size. We characterize the spatial patterns of genetic relatedness among individuals, how relatedness affects dispersal, and how the genetic and epigenetic characteristics of individuals change with distance. Specifically, we will determine if more closely related individuals disperse further, or more generally, if there is a predictable molecular signature of dispersal. Finally, we integrate these data with previously collected data from multiple scrubs across the range of the Florida Sand Skink to investigate the driving factors of epigenetic and genetic characteristics among scrubs.
