APSU partners with TWRA to study endangered Citico Darter
By: Colby Wilson August 2, 2024
Dr. Rebecca Blanton Johansen, at right, in the field with then-APSU graduate student Erin Bloom in 2019. Starting this fall, Johansen’s team will be part of a three-year project to study the conservation of the endangered Citico Darter.
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Austin Peay State University’s Center of Excellence for Field Biology (CEFB) recently signed a contract with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) to study the conservation genetics of a federally endangered fish species in eastern Tennessee.
The project, which begins this fall and is scheduled to run for three years, will examine the success of a 30-plus year propagation, reintroduction and translocation program for the Citico Darter, a species recognized and described by CEFB Principal Investigator Dr. Rebecca Blanton Johansen in 2008.
A rendering of the Citico Darter, an endangered fish species native to East Tennessee. It currently resides in portions of the Little Tennessee River system.
This small-bodied, bottom-dwelling fish has a small native range restricted to two streams (Citico Creek and Abrams Creek of the Little Tennessee River system) in East Tennessee and is protected under the Endangered Species Act.
In the early 1990s, in response to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recovery plan guidelines for the Citico Darter, Conservation Fisheries Inc. (CFI) began a captive propagation program with the species. In 2003, CFI extended the species' known range by introducing it to the Tellico River, where it is now established. CFI has continued to transfer individual fish among systems to promote genetic diversity, but the outcome of their recovery work has not been evaluated.
Funding from the TWRA will be used to assess the genetic diversity of all three populations to determine if the reintroduced populations have comparable levels of genetic diversity to the source population in Citico Creek. Blanton Johansen and her lab will help shape future strategies to ensure the darter persists in all three locations and aid the CFI in modifying or continuing their work.
“This study will provide a robust and contemporary baseline to continue genetic monitoring … [and] improve recovery efforts to ensure this species persists in the future,” Blanton Johansen said. “Because darters are sensitive to habitat alterations or degradation from human land uses in general, and this species is highly imperiled, our work will ultimately contribute to its long-term conservation and persistence.”
The research is being done in collaboration with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, National Park Service – Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP), and Conservation Fisheries Inc. It will also serve as the foundation for biology graduate student Spencer Trimpe’s master’s thesis, with additional funding from the Campbell and Tanner Conservation Grant program to support research on imperiled darters in GSMNP.
Trimpe’s grant is something of a rarity in the field — master’s students don’t often receive grants for their own research. Students involved in the project will get first-hand experience sampling for federally endangered fishes via snorkeling and learn techniques for safely sampling tissues for DNA extraction. They will also gain experiences in the lab, learning contemporary molecular genetic approaches to studying population genetics and conservation biology.
About the Austin Peay College of STEM
The College of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) provides studies for students in the areas of agriculture, astronomy, aviation sciences, biology, chemistry, computer science, earth and environmental sciences, engineering physics, engineering technology, information technology, mathematics, medical laboratory sciences, radiologic sciences and physics. Our outstanding, discipline-based programs are student-centered and designed to prepare students for responsible positions at all levels of research, industry, education, medicine and government positions.