Comparing Genetic Diversity Among Populations of Rock Sandpiper (Calidris ptilocnemis)

• Main Author: Alfonso, Hyland
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita 2022
• Subjects: Animal Sciences; Genetics; Natural Resources and Conservation; Ornithology; Population Biology; Seward Peninsula; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/915

Rock Sandpipers (Calidris ptilocnemis) are a shorebird species only found in the North Pacific Basin (Ruthrauff, et al. 2019; Fig. 1, 2). There are four subspecies of Rock Sandpipers, C. p. couesi, C. p. quarta, C. p. tschuktschorum, and C. p. Ptilocnemis (Gibson & Withrow, 2015). Of these four subspecies, three have an overall conservation category of moderately high with a current unknown status and high biological vulnerability due to environmental disturbances (ACCS at UAA, 2018). The three subspecies compared for differences in their genetic diversity and population relatedness were C.p. couesi, C.p. tschuktschorum, and C.p. ptilocnemis. The subspecies differed in their primary migratory and breeding locations: C.p. couesi is found in the Aleutian Islands, C.p. tschuktschorum is found on the Seward Peninsula and Cold Bay, and C.p. ptilocnemis is found on the Pribilof Islands. The subspecies are further distinguished through their morphological differences among populations. C.p. ptilocnemis is of the greatest conservation size due to the differing population size of its two island populations. This study aims to assess the differences in the genetic diversity between island and mainland populations of Rock Sandpipers, as well as, comparing two island populations from the subspecies C. p. ptilocnemis. Genetic diversity was assessed by comparing the heterozygosity, allelic richness, and genetic clusters between the five populations. Info1mation for these analyses was retrieved through genotyping several microsatellite loci amplified from tissue samples of Rock Sandpipers. These analyses have the potential to provide insight for better determining the conservation status of the shorebird and future conservation plans.