Project Description:
This is a conservation project that is currently funded by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and is designed to increase the population size of a highly endangered fish, the Leon Springs Pupfish (Cyprinodon bovinus).
The project consists of two components:
- First, is to expand the pupfish’s spawning habitat by removing the bulrush grass that is choking the shallow areas. Along with this renovation is the dispersal of another endangered fish, Gambusia nobilis, which is a potent egg predator of the pupfish. Along with these habitat modifications, we will monitor the distribution and reproduction of the pupfish and the subsequent egg predation by G. nobilis.
- Second, to examine the genetic effects caused by the isolation of the pupfish.
The BDSI students will perform the field work at the Texas Nature Conservancy property located near Ft. Stockton, Texas, and the genetic analysis at Lehigh University.
Project Year:
2013
Team Leaders:
Murray Itzkowitz, Ph.D. (Biological Sciences)
Paul Samollow, Ph.D. (Department of Veterinarian Integrative Biosciences, Texas A&M Univ. )
Graduate Students:
Layla Al-Shaer
Timothy Paciorek
Undergraduate Students:
Zachary Carroll
Lanshi Li
Louise McCallie
Caroline Rago