Polymorphism, Selection & Conservation in local Salamanders

The Southern Appalachians are a hotspot of salamander diversity. Currently, students in the Siefferman lab (in collaboration with Dr. Mike Gangloff) have multiple projects focusing on evolution, disease, and conservation in spotted salamanders and eastern hellbenders.

Past MS student, Desiree' Moffitt (MS 2012), investigated how community ecology and population size of five species of Plethodontid salamanders varies with elevation on Grandfather Mt., NC. She also studied the (low) prevalence of chytrid-causing fungus in NC salamanders (Moffitt et al. 2015).

Worth Pugh (MS student 2013) studied how habitat and landscape influence the abundance hellbender salamanders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) in the Watauga River drainage (Pugh et al. 2015). Tommy Franklin's research expanded on this project by using occupancy modeling to better understand how habitat predicts presence absence of hellbenders. Tommy's thesis (2014) also investigated how well environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling predicts occupancy and abundance of hellbenders in southern Appalachian streams. Next, Ashley Yuan (MS 2019) used stable isotopes to better understand the diet of this slimy and illusive friend.

The lab group has collected long-term data of the reproductive behaviors and life-history evolution of spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum). Undergraduate honors student, Carl Jacobsen (2015) demonstrated the clutch parameters influence the benefits of symbiotic algae to developing spotted salamander embryos. His research shows that polysaccharide type of the jelly matrix of salamander eggs is likely influenced by a complex interaction between predation pressure and benefits from intra-cellular symbiotic algae. Simon King expanded this research across an elevational gradient (2016) while Gabriela Neufeld investigated physiochemical correlations (2019). Let's just say more research taught us that this system is complicated! Chloe Dorin (current MS student & honors thesis 2020) has taken the project to new heights in the quest to understand how this unique intra-cellular symbiotic algae and the surrounding environmental conditions might hold the clue to this fascinating polymorphism. Stay tuned!