Strategic Habitat Conservation and Adaptive Strategies for Recovery and Pre-listing Conservation of Eleutherodactylus (coqui) Amphibians in Puerto Rico

Abstract:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to develop a portfolio of actions to enhance the status of 2 endangered species and prevent the listing of species-at-risk in the genus Eleutherodactylus, commonly known as the “coqui.” Recovery and strategic conservation actions are centered on two climate adaptation strategies: managed translocations and identification of climate refuges. Trade-off assessments and decisions will be informed by high-resolution climate modeling and on-the-ground studies addressing the three cornerstones of the USFWS species status assessments. Genomic analyses inform decisions on how to preserve species representativeness. Actions to promote resiliency and redundancy will be informed by ecophysiological work that define limits and adaptive capacity of species, and field studies that identify conditions that foster favorable demographic rates across landscapes, and then help validate if demographic rates match predictions associated with potential climate refuges identified with high-resolution climate projections. Managed translocations also foster redundancy and resiliency. Cumulative data will help inform when and where to supplement or relocate populations to prevent local extinctions of endangered species (recovery) or species unable to emigrate from unsuitable to suitable habitat with ensuing global warming. This project exemplifies how decision makers from the USFWS Southeast Region benefit from CASC-supported adaptation science to help them formulate and implement management actions to preserve our natural and cultural heritage.