Research Projects

Amanda is using non-invasive genetic techniques to study how California highways are affecting gene flow of mesopredators.  She is obtaining DNA from coyote scat collected in study areas on either side of four highways: I-80 and SR 50 in the Sierra Nevada foothills and I-580 and I-680 in the Bay Area.  Amanda will use landscape genetic analyses to determine whether highways are fragmenting coyote populations.  Isolation of mesopredator populations makes them vulnerable to genetic diversity loss and inbreeding and could increase their likelihood of population extinctions.