2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
5/25/2021 | 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM | USING ENVIRONMENTAL DNA SURVEYS AND LAND USE CHANGE TO ASSESS EXTINCTION DEBT OF EASTERN HELLBENDERS IN ALABAMA | Virtual Platform
USING ENVIRONMENTAL DNA SURVEYS AND LAND USE CHANGE TO ASSESS EXTINCTION DEBT OF EASTERN HELLBENDERS IN ALABAMA
Extinction debt, or the time lag in the extinction of species after habitat loss or modification, is a well-recognized challenge for conservation. Yet most extinction debt research has relied on theoretical modeling rather than empirical field observations. Eastern hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) populations have been declining across their range since the 1980s and previous research suggested that these populations represent unpaid extinction debts. Here we asked whether contemporary C. alleganiensis detections in Alabama better matched historical or current land use (e.g. extinction debt). We combined five years of environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling across the Tennessee River watershed in Alabama with catchment-level estimates of urbanization in 2001 (historical) and 2016 (current). We focused on urbanization because of rapid human population growth in northern Alabama over recent decades. We used occupancy modeling to estimate relative variable importance contrasting land use in 2001 against 2016. Occupancy of C. alleganiensis was best explained by benthic invertebrate metrics of stream condition and historical rather than current land use. This suggest that human population growth and ongoing urbanization in Alabama has likely committed current C. alleganiensis populations to future local extinctions as an unpaid extinction debt.
- Land use
- Land use
- Stream
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Presenters/Authors
Amanda Curtis
(), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, amandac3@illinois.edu;
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James C. Godwin
(), The Alabama Natural Heritage Program, jcg0001@auburn.edu; ?;
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Lesley de Souza
(), Field Museum of Natural History, ldesouza@fieldmuseum.org;
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Kurt Ash
(), University of Tennessee, ktashou@gmail.com;
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Eric Larson
(), University of Illinois, erlarson@illinois.edu;
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