Cooperative Agreement NA25NMFX472C0160

WITH THE LISTING OF QUEEN CONCH UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT LISTING, THERE IS A NEED TO ADDRESS SEVERAL CRITICAL COMPONENTS WHILE A SPECIES RECOVERY PLAN IS POTENTIALLY DEVELOPED AND IMPLEMENTED, WHICH INCLUDES ELUCIDATING THE GENETIC POPULATION STRUCTURE AND THE CONNECTIVITY AMONG SUBPOPULATIONS IN AN ATTEMPT TO TEST A MODEL DEVELOPED DURING THE 2022 STATUS REVIEW. USING TISSUE SAMPLES COLLECTED BY COLLABORATORS FROM AREAS IDENTIFIED AS MAJOR SOURCES, ECOLOGICAL CORRIDORS, AND RECRUITMENT AREAS OF CONCH LARVAE, TAMU-G SCIENTISTS WILL USE A POPULATION GENOMICS APPROACH TO IDENTIFY SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISMS (SNPS) USING DDRAD SEQUENCING DATA. THEY WILL USE SNPS TO ESTIMATE THE LEVELS OF GENETIC VARIABILITY WITHIN POPULATIONS AND OF DIFFERENTIATION AMONG POPULATIONS. TAMU-G STAFF WILL USE THESE STATISTICS TO ESTIMATE THE EFFECTIVE POPULATION SIZE FOR EACH SUBPOPULATION, AND THE LEVELS OF CONNECTIVITY AMONG POPULATIONS. TOGETHER, THESE RESEARCH COMPONENTS WILL IDENTIFY CRITICAL QUEEN CONCH POPULATIONS AND HABITAT AREAS TO TARGET FOR PROTECTION TO FACILITATE THE RECOVERY OF THE SPECIES. TAMU-G STAFF WILL BUILD A GENOMIC LIBRARY OF QUEEN CONCH SAMPLED IN JURISDICTIONS ACROSS THE CARIBBEAN, WHICH WILL SUPPLEMENT A GROWING DATABASE COMPILED FROM PREVIOUS SAMPLING EFFORTS. THE GENOMIC DATA WILL ALLOW FOR DIRECT COMPARISONS OF GENE FLOW AND IDENTIFY LINKAGES BETWEEN POPULATIONS OF QUEEN CONCH, ULTIMATELY ATTEMPTING TO VALIDATE THE CONNECTIVITY MODEL. THE INFORMATION GAINED FROM NEARSHORE SURVEYS OF THE FLORIDA KEYS AND BAY SYSTEM WILL SUPPORT EFFORTS BY THE FLORIDA FISH AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION TO MONITOR POPULATION LEVELS AND IDENTIFY CRITICAL JUVENILE HABITAT AREAS FOR CONSERVATION EFFORTS TO SUPPORT THE REPLENISHMENT OF THE LOCAL STOCKS. THE TWO OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY WILL HELP FULFILL DATA AND RESEARCH NEEDS FOR QUEEN CONCH, WHICH INCLUDE, STOCK IDENTIFICATION (ID) AND LIFE HISTORY INFORMATION INCLUDING LARVAL DISTRIBUTION AND RECRUITMENT. THE LEVELS OF GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION AMONG POPULATIONS COULD INFORM ABOUT THE EXTENT OF SELF-RECRUITMENT AND OF THE VARYING LEVELS OF GENE FLOW AND ITS DIRECTIONALITY, USEFUL FOR TESTING SOURCE AND SINK DYNAMICS MODELS. THIS INFORMATION WOULD BE VALUABLE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MANAGEMENT UNITS AND FOR PRIORITIZING PROTECTION MEASURES.