Amphibians are crucial ecosystem indicators, sensitive to environmental shifts like salinity and pollution. Amphiuma means is a large aquatic salamander native to the southeastern United States. They have four limbs that append two toes and reach lengths over a meter. This salamander has limited mobility due to their diminutive limbs, hindering gene flow between isolated wetlands. Gene flow is the transfer of genetic material from one population to another. This study expanded on genetic differences between mainland and coastal populations of A. means in Georgia's barrier islands, which have been spatially isolated for thousands of years. Nuclear and mitochondrial primers were used to amplify a portion of the Rag1 gene and Cytochrome b gene to analyze. I predicted that coastal populations would exhibit less genetic variation due to the isolation of the barrier islands. The results indicated low mitochondrial DNA variation in coastal populations, but, high nuclear DNA variation.
