Wisconsin has lost over half of its wetlands due to urban sprawl.  Entire habitats are filled in due to construction of new roads and wetlands are permanently divided in half by freeways, reducing the amount of space for turtles to migrate and live.  When turtles do try and cross the road, well, you can imagine that their chances of making it to the other side are not very good.

Besides cars and roads, turtle survival is also facing threats from new predators; free-roaming cats and dogs who eat their eggs. 

Endangered turtles = endangered wetlands. Maintaining an environment that protects turtles ensures the ecology of Wisconsin is protected for other species that need the wetland to survive as well.

To this end, enter Sean Murphy, a Masters student at University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Last month, MO BIO Labs had the chance to chat with Sean about his research on wetland conservation and monitoring. Sean explained how the genetic mapping of turtle species within the wetland environment allows them to determine the health of the watershed.

We found Sean’s research fascinating as he told us more about the ways they are using molecular biology to protect and conserve the wetlands of Wisconsin.

Q: How are turtles involved in wetland conservation?

A:  A healthy wetland is integrated with neighboring environments. Wetland environments that are isolated are often an environment that is in distress and in danger of decline. Through population genetics, we can compare the genetics of turtle populations commonly found in wetlands throughout southeast Wisconsin. When there is a steady stream of migration between wetland environments, microsatellite analysis will demonstrate high degrees of heterozygosity in the turtle population. Environments with low heterozygosity or with microsatellites that differ substantially from neighboring turtle populations are likely to be the result of genetic isolation. That genetic isolation may be an indicator of a declining or distressed watershed. This is the focus of our research.

Q: Why focus on turtles as the indicator species?

A: Turtles are relatively sedentary and long-lived. They prefer to stay in one area, however, in active seasons they may travel to other wetlands to nest, often traveling as much as a mile to mate. Additionally, they require a varied environment, with sandy areas to nest and shallow water to hibernate. The annual migrations mean that isolated populations are not likely to naturally occur. Further, in the Great Lakes region the development of wetlands areas have left the Blanding turtle on the endangered list in many states and on the threatened list in even more. So the connection between wetland destruction and the decline in turtle population has been clearly observed.

Q:  How has MO BIO Laboratories and our products assisted you in furthering this work?

A: Our turtle blood samples are particularly clotted and it is very difficult to break apart these clots. MO BIO’s UltraClean Tissue & Cells kit has a bead beating step in addition to a proteinase K digestion which really helped us to ensure that DNA wasn’t being lost when we passed the sample over the spin column. Adding to this complication, turtle blood has nucleated red blood cells so the yield of DNA is extremely high. Again the Tissue & Cells kit overcame challenges with spin column clogging that we experienced with other kits.

*****

Thank you Sean, for sharing with us your passion for environmental conservation. We are glad we can play a role in this important research!

Funding for this project is provided by the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network. Additional support comes from Dr. Gregory Mayer, Associate Professor at University of Wisconsin – Parkside and Robert Jagla.

Here is more information on how you can protect wetland turtles and reptiles and the Wetland Turtle Group site gives information on endangered species of turtles.

Answer:  To Get to the Other Wetland!

Have a great week folks!

Suzanne

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 9:55 am and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.