Population Assessments of Federally Threatened Everglades Bully in Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, USA, Using Habitat Suitability Modeling and Micromorphology.

ABSTRACT: In Big Cypress National Preserve, the federally threatened Everglades bully (Sideroxylon reclinatum subsp. austrofloridense) is sympatric with its conspecific, more widespread relative, the Florida bully (Sideroxylon reclinatum subsp. reclinatum). In this area of overlap, the only reliable characters to distinguish the two are cryptic, micromorphological traits of the abaxial laminar surface. In order to better understand the distribution of the federally threatened taxon, we used a combination of habitat suitability modeling (HSM), field surveys, and microscopy. Using models to inform initial surveys, we collected leaf material of 96 individuals in the field, 86 of which we were able to identify to subspecies. Of these, 73 (85%) were identified as the threatene

SUBMITTER: Lange JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10097282 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature