Disturbance-mediated Hybridization

Humans are transforming the environment at an unprecedented rate. These landscape modifications are leading to hybridization between normally reproductively isolated species (Grabenstein & Taylor 2018).

However, few studies have leveraged the power of habitat disturbances to break well-established species barriers.

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Black-capped and mountain chickadees appear to hybridize in urban areas (white dots), despite wide range overlap (purple).

Using ddRAD sequences from >420 chickadees from across their range overlap, I am exploring the correlation between human habitat disturbances and chickadee hybridization.

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