Since 2006, we have been working closely with the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER site at Sapelo Island (also the University of Georgia Marine Institute). Our job has been to characterize gene flow and genetic diversity on a small spatial scale, among the 10 key sites of this LTER and sites at other salt marsh LTERs on the Atlantic coast. We already have one manuscript floating around (J. Robinson, E. D’az-Ferguson, J. P. Wares unpub.) on a test of Mark Vellend's theoretical predictions for the correlation of species and genetic diversity. The available species abundance data aren't perfect for this test, but we have some intriguing results anyway, stay tuned.


This work, funded by the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation, is a collaboration with Yair Achituv and Keith Crandall to study the diversity of chthamalid barnacles at the population, species, and family level. The primary focus of my section of this work is a phylogeny of the genus Chthamalus, an update to work I published in 2001. This time, Sabrina Pankey and I have a six-gene integrated phylogeny utilizing 'deep coalescent' approaches for all of the northern/western hemisphere species, and many other European, African, Asian, and Central/South American taxa. It won't be every species but will be a solid framework for future studies of this interesting high intertidal group. This funding has also allowed me to focus on population genetics of two Chilean chthamalids, Jehlius cirratus and Notochthamalus scabrosus, in collaboration with Sergio Navarrete. Superundergrad John Binford and graduate student Christina Zakas are finishing up this work, we hope to have a manuscript submitted by summer 2008.


This work is funded to better describe the population and community structure of freshwater mussels in the southeast, particularly those endemic to the Altamaha River. We are also collecting genetic data on the very rare specimens of the Altamaha spinymussel, a species that may soon be listed under the ESA. Graduate student Scott Small has also developed a large number of microsatellites for these mussels in collaboration with the King lab.


I've received funding from NGS to better understand the larval connectivity among isolated salt marsh habitats on the Atlantic coast of North America. Preliminary work has already been completed by Edgardo Diaz-Ferguson and John Robinson, and we will be doing additional work in 2008 to get a really solid understanding of how these remarkable autogenic communities are linked demographically.


Funding is available from the University of Georgia Research Foundation for young faculty to get projects rolling. From this funding people in the Wares lab have used genetic tools to describe new species of barnacles in Belize, we've performed an exhaustive population genetic survey of southeastern minnow Notropis lutipinnis to explore the origins of the Little Tennesse river population (this work is now in review at Molecular Ecology, and current funding will enable further exploration of larval dynamics among salt marsh and coastal fouling communities.