Development of genetic based functional connectivity models for boreal caribou herds and ecotypes

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The listing of boreal caribou as a Threatened species under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) has required federal, provincial and territorial governments to develop a recovery strategy for the species. We propose to expand current provincial-specific conservation genetic projects to a large-scale comparative study to address similar questions and characterize general trends and regional-specific patterns. One of the most fundamental aspects of caribou conservation and effective management is the identification of appropriate conservation and management units. For boreal caribou this is relevant at three different biological scales: the subspecies, the ecotype and the herd. This project will apply a range of DNA markers to understand the relationship among these scales to determine the level of exchange and distinctiveness. Following a delineation and characterization of the functional conservation and management units of boreal caribou, it is critical to quantify the structural and functional connectivity among caribou conservation and management units, and identify the environmental (e.g. climate), landscape (e.g. forest cover, fire disturbance), and anthropogenic (e.g. road densities) variables that facilitate or inhibit animal dispersal and subsequent gene flow. Identifying these variables at both broad- and fine-scales are important for implementing effective land use decisions. For this purpose we will develop models to incorporate genetic, environmental, landscape, anthropogenic and