Chapter 26, Problem 16TYPSS

You are a conservation biologist charged with creating a recovery plan for an endangered species of turtle. The turtle's habitat has been fragmented by suburbanization and highway construction into small, isolated, but protected areas. Some evidence indicates that certain turtle populations are adapted to typical freshwater marshes, whereas others are adapted to acidic wetlands or salty habitats. Further, some turtle populations number less than 25 breeding adults, making genetic drift and inbreeding a major concern. In creating a recovery plan, the tools at your disposal are captive breeding, the capture and transfer of adults to create gene flow, or the creation of habitat corridors between wetlands to make migration possible. How would you use gene flow to help this species?