Foliar Fungal Epiphytes Associated with Achatinella mustelina

Achatinella mustelina is a species of critically endangered snail endemic to the Hawaiian island of O'ahu. Management practices call for relocating certain extant populations to nearby sites more conducive to building large-scale exclosures to keep out predators. Moving endangered species carries a certain level of risk, and one factor that must be considered is whether snail food sources will be significantly different between current and proposed sites. This study compared the snail food sources (foliar fungal epiphytes) between current and proposed sites using high-throughput sequencing of fungal ITS taken from replicate leaf swabs from each location.