Isabel Porto Hannes

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York | SUNY Buffalo · Department of Environment and Sustainability

Conventional survey methods to find rare and endangered aquatic species can be time consuming, expensive, destructive to habitat, and limited by the physical conditions of a site. Sampling for environmental DNA (eDNA) shed by organisms into their environments can overcome these limitations, maximizing conservation resources. However, the optimal sp...

Natural range expansions in warm-water freshwater fishes are currently not well understood, but shifts in native species distributions can be influenced by many factors, including habitat restoration or degradation and climate change. Here, we provide empirical evidence of range expansions observed in two native freshwater fish species in Lake Erie...

Natural range expansions in warm-water freshwater fishes are currently not well understood, but shifts in native species distributions can be influenced by many factors, including habitat restoration or degradation and climate change. Here, we provide empirical evidence of range expansions observed in two native freshwater fish species in Lake Erie...

ecological and evolutionary consequences. In lotic freshwater systems, landscape features such as barriers or connectors, can affect dispersal and thus gene flow. It is of special interest to characterize population genetic structure in the presence of impassable barriers because they can restrict dispersal and thus isolate populations. On the othe...

Simpsonaias ambigua, Salamander Mussel (previously known as Mudpuppy Mussel) is a freshwater mussel of the Family Unionidae. This species is unique from other unionids as it uses Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy), as a host instead of a fish. This mussel is found within medium to large rivers or lakes, in areas of swift current almost exclusively benea...

Correct species identification and delineation are crucial for effective conservation and management. However, species delineation can be problematic in the presence of morphological ambiguities due to phenotypic plasticity, convergence, and/or interspecific hybridization. Here, we investigated the degree of hybridization between two closely related...

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Successful recruitment is critical to the maintenance and resilience of populations and may be at the core of the transition from scleractinian- to octocoral-dominated faunas on some Caribbean reefs. For sessile invertebrates, recruitment incorporates the composite effects of larval supply, settlement and survival. The relative success of these pro...

Lampsilis bracteata (Gould), the Texas Fatmucket, is a regional endemic species in the central Texas biogeographic province which is a candidate to be listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Lampsilis bracteata is morphologically similar to the common species L. hydiana (Lea). Here, we examine the molecular taxo...

The Buffalo Museum of Science (BMS) houses a historically important collection the "Imogene Robertson Collection" that dates back to the mid 1800’s and contains marine mollusks, land mollusks and freshwater mussels. This collection has a great value since contains taxa from around the world spanning different habitats. Moreover, it has a tremendous...

Patterns of dispersal and connectivity of the Caribbean gorgonian Antillogorgia elisabethae in The Bahamas were assessed in both adults and recently settled recruits from 13 sites using microsatellite loci. Adult populations along the Little Bahama Bank (LBB) exhibited a clear pattern of isolation by distance (IBD) which described 86% of the varian...

Studies of genetic diversity and population genetic structure in marine organisms are relevant to understanding populations’ variability, and therefore their ability to withstand environmental perturbations, their potential for resistance to local extinction and their natural rate of recovery. Population structure and genetic diversity were assesse...

We report 7 new polymorphic microsatellite loci of the Caribbean gorgonian Antillogorgia elisabethae, and assess their utility as highly polymorphic markers for population genetic studies. We also found an indel of 4 base pairs in one of the microsatellite flanking region that can be used as an independent locus. A. elisabethae is of special intere...

Due to the importance of preserving the genetic integrity of populations, strategies to restore damaged coral reefs should attempt to retain the allelic diversity of the disturbed population; however, genetic diversity estimates are not available for most coral populations. To provide a generalized estimate of genetic diversity (in terms of allelic...

Coral-algal symbiosis has been a subject of great attention during the last two decades in response to global coral reef decline. However, the occurrence and dispersion of free-living dinoflagellates belonging to the genus Symbiodinium are less documented. Here ecological and molecular evidence is presented demonstrating the existence of demersal f...