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

根据《濒危物种法案》（SARA），北方驯鹿被列为受威胁物种，这要求联邦、省和地区政府为该物种制定恢复战略。我们建议将目前的省级保护遗传项目扩展到大规模的比较研究，以解决类似的问题，并表征总体趋势和区域特定模式。北美驯鹿保护和有效管理的最基本方面之一是确定适当的保护和管理单位。对于北方驯鹿来说，这在三个不同的生物尺度上是相关的：亚种、生态型和鹿群。该项目将应用一系列DNA标记来了解这些尺度之间的关系，以确定交换水平和独特性。在描述和描述北方北美驯鹿的功能保护和管理单元之后，量化北美驯鹿保护和管理单元之间的结构和功能连通性，并确定促进或抑制动物扩散和随后的基因流动的环境（如气候）、景观（如森林覆盖、火灾干扰）和人为（如道路密度）变量至关重要。在宏观和微观尺度上确定这些变量对于实施有效的土地利用决策非常重要。为此目的，我们将开发模型，将遗传、环境、景观、人为和

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