CONSERVATION GENETICS OF THE AMERICAN DIPPER IN THE BLACK HILLS OF SOUTH DAKOTA

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The long-term objective of this project is to develop DNA fingerprinting markers for Cinclus mexicanus, the American dipper, that can be used to determine the relationship of the Black Hills populations with other Rocky Mountain populations of this species. In 1996 the American dipper was placed on the list of threatened species in South Dakota. The population of this small aquatic bird is in decline in all of South Dakota?s streams except for Spearfish Creek. Loss of potential nesting sites and damming of streams have contributed to the declining dipper populations (Price and Bock, 1983). Additionally, the increasing sedimentation of streams has been detrimental to aquatic insect larvae, the major food source of American dippers. The project, which began in January 2002, has developed noninvasive methods to obtain DNA samples from the Black Hills population of dippers. This is significant because of the need to gather genetic data without further reducing population size. The next phase of the project is to construct a small fragment genomic library and identify polymorphic microsatellite regions within the dipper genome. We would then develop genetic markers using those regions.