| Summary: | The Common eider, Somateria mollissima, is a large sea duck with a Holarctic distribution, composed of six subspecies. The subspecies statuses are formed on the basis of morphological data and the Common eiders in the Faroe Islands and Iceland have been assigned to the subspecies S. m. faeroeensis and S. m. borealis, respectively. The aim of this study is to examine the subspecies statuses of the Faroese and Icelandic Common eider populations with comparisons to other eider subspecies. Samples for genetic and morphological analysis were collected in the Faroe Islands and Iceland during the summer of 2017. Feathers from breeding females were collected for DNA extraction, while standardized measurements were taken of the same birds. Additionally, previously analyzed specimens from several studies were obtained for other eider subspecies. Sequence analysis of four nuclear and mtDNA markers, show that there are genetic differences among the six Common eider subspecies. While the eiders in the Faroe Islands comprise a distinct population with closest similarity to eiders from western Iceland and the Shetlands, the population in northern Iceland appears to be a mixture of the nominate subspecies S. m. mollissima and S. m. borealis. Although Amadon’s rule did not distinguish all the current subspecies, there was significant difference among them based on Mahalanobis distances calculated from three variable morphometrics. Æðarfugl, Somateria mollissima, er stór sjóönd sem er skipt í sex undirtegundir sem lifa umhverfis norðurpól. Undirtegundirnar eru skilgreindar útfrá útlitsbreytleika og hava æðarfuglar í Færeyjum og á Íslandi verið flokkaðir til undirtegundanna S. m. faeroeensis og S. m. borealis. Markmið þessa verkefnis var að sannreyna stöðu þessara tveggja undirtegunda með samanburði á stærðarmælingum og erfðaefni æðafugla. Sýnum var safnað í Færeyjum og á Íslandi sumarið 2017. Tekin voru fjaðrasýni af kvennfuglum fyrir erfðarannsókn og staðlaðar stærðarmælingar gerðar af sömu einstaklingum. Auk þess, voru fengin ...
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