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Person

Shawna J Zimmerman

Biologist
Email: szimmerman@usgs.gov
Office Phone: 970-226-9153
Fax: 970-226-9230
ORCID: 0000-0003-3394-6102

Location
2150 Centre Avenue
Building C
Fort Collins , CO 80526-8118
US
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Monitoring change in genetic diversity in wildlife populations across multiple scales could facilitate prioritization of conservation efforts. We used microsatellite genotypes from 7,080 previously collected genetic samples from across the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) range to develop a modelling framework for estimating genetic diversity within a recently developed hierarchically nested monitoring framework (clusters). The majority of these genetic samples (n=6560) were used in previous research (Oyler-McCance et al. 2014; Cross et. al 2018; Row et. al. 2018). Genetic diversity values associated with clusters across multiple scales could facilitate the identification of areas with low genetic...
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Genetic variation is a well-known indicator of population fitness yet is not typically included in monitoring programs for sensitive species. Additionally, most programs monitor populations at one scale, which can lead to potential mismatches with ecological processes critical to species’ conservation. Recently developed methods generating hierarchically nested population units (i.e., clusters of varying scales) for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) have identified population trend declines across spatiotemporal scales to help managers target areas for conservation. The same clusters used as a proxy for spatial scale can alert managers to local units (i.e., fine-scale) with low genetic diversity relative...
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Habitat fragmentation and degradation impacts an organism's ability to navigate the landscape, ultimately resulting in decreased gene flow and increased extinction risk. Understanding how landscape composition impacts gene flow (i.e., connectivity) and interacts with scale is essential to conservation decision-making. We used a landscape genetics approach implementing a recently developed statistical model based on the generalized Wishart probability distribution to identify the primary landscape features affecting gene flow and estimate the degree to which each component influences connectivity for Gunnison sage-grouse (Centrocercus minimus). We were interested in two spatial scales: among distinct populations...
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Conservation translocations are a common wildlife management tool that can be difficult to implement and evaluate for effectiveness. Genetic information can provide unique insight regarding local impact of translocations (e.g., presence and retention of introduced genetic variation) and identifying suitable source and recipient populations (e.g., adaptive similarity). We developed two genetic data sets and wrote statistical code to evaluate conservation translocation effectiveness into the isolated northwestern region of the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) distribution and to retrospectively evaluate adaptive divergence among source and recipient populations. Our first data set was microsatellite-based...
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