The Arizona Toad (Bufo [ = Anaxyrus] microscaphus) occupied the entire Agua Fria River drainage in central Arizona until relatively recently. By the 1980s, a close relative, Woodhouse's Toad (Bufo woodhousii), colonized the lower reaches of the Agua Fria and replaced B. microscaphus at some sites. We tested the hypothesis that habitat disturbance drives replacement of B. microscaphus by B. woodhousii, via hybridization, by examining shifts in the distribution of these toads following the expansion of the Waddell Dam on the lower Agua Fria River in the early 1990s. As of 2010, the high elevation headwaters of the Agua Fria River were still occupied by B. microscaphus, the lower reaches near the confluence with the Gila River were occupied by B. woodhousii, and along the middle reaches, hybridization between these two anurans occurred at the same three sites as documented in the early 1990s. Contrary to expectations, evidence of hybridization along middle reaches of the river is largely unchanged: B. microscaphus has not been replaced by B. woodhousii at any additional sites nor is there any evidence of introgression of woodhousii mtDNA into putatively “pure” microscaphus populations upstream of hybrid sites.

Given the seasonal nature of ecosystems such as permanent sinkholes ('cenotes') and temporary wetlands, their fish fauna experience yearly local extinction and colonization processes, with strong fluctuations in population size. We evaluated the genetic diversity, population genetic structure and degree of isolation of populations of Poecilia orri and Gambusia yucatana among and within wetlands and cenotes. We also assessed some abiotic characteristics of the water bodies and their potential relationship with average genetic diversity. Both species showed low genetic diversity, but this was twice as low in P. orri. Populations of G. yucatana showed no genetic structure, whereas those of P. orri did. The genetic divergence results were consistent with isolation between cenotes and wetlands, where the different types of water bodies had a distinctive genetic composition. We suggest that our genetic diversity and differentiation results are associated with the successive, seasonal-yearly population size shrinkage and expansion events (i.e. extinction and recolonization) that occur in these systems, and also with the environmental tolerance, body size, and reproduction characteristics of both species. Our results show how these codistributed species can have markedly different genetic structuring and diversity, most likely determined by their particular biological and ecological characteristics, and provide baseline information for future studies.<br>Dada la naturaleza estacional de ecosistemas como cenotes permanentes y humedales temporales, su fauna íctiológica experimenta procesos locales anuales de extinción y colonización, con grandes fluctuaciones en el tamaño poblacional. Evaluamos la diversidad y estructura genética y el grado de aislamiento de las poblaciones de Poecilia orri y Gambusia yucatana dentro y entre humedales y cenotes. También evaluamos algunas características abióticas de los cuerpos de agua y su relación potencial con la diversidad genética. Ambas especies mostraron baja diversidad genética, pero ésta fue 2 veces más baja en P. orri. Las poblaciones de G. yucatana no mostraron estructura genética, mientras que las de P. orri estuvieron estructuradas y diferenciadas. Los resultados de divergencia genética fueron consistentes con aislamiento entre cenotes y humedales, donde los diferentes tipos de cuerpo de agua tuvieron una composición genética distintiva. Sugerimos que la diversidad y diferenciación genética observadas están asociadas con los eventos sucesivos, estacionales, de disminución y expansión del tamaño poblacional (i.e. extinción y recolonización) que ocurren en estos sistemas; asimismo, asociadas con la tolerancia ambiental, el tamaño corporal y las características de reproducción de las 2 especies. Nuestros resultados muestran cómo estas 2 especies codistribuidas pueden tener una estructura y diversidad genética marcadamente diferentes, probablemente determinada por sus características biológicas y ecológicas particulares, y proveen a su vez información fundamental para estudios futuros.