Application of population & landscape genomics to federally mandated recovery actions for boreal caribou

作为对北方驯鹿被列入名单的回应，加拿大环境部制定了一项联邦恢复战略（最终2012年），并确定了51个“当地种群”的人口和分布目标。北方驯鹿对保护生物学家和政策制定者来说具有特殊的意义，因为大约一半的“当地种群”正在减少，或者处于“濒危”类别（例如：濒危物种）。“受威胁”、“濒危”或“特别关注”)。越来越多的人类活动引起的栖息地干扰和丧失以及不断变化的捕食者-猎物动态已不同程度地确定为林地驯鹿当前的威胁。根据《战略》中概述的广泛战略和一般办法，现在要求各省和地区政府制定范围计划和行动计划，以提供将采取的措施的信息，以实现北方驯鹿的恢复。需要描述的恢复战略的两个基本组成部分是：1)当地人口的划分；2)人口数量是否稳定、增加或减少。对于北美驯鹿来说，这代表了三种不同的生物尺度：亚种和生态型，作为假定的保护单位，或在加拿大称为可指定单位（DUs），以及当地种群。亚种的进化分析将用于确定进化谱系、冰川避难所的数量和范围、冰川后种群扩张的模式以及谱系之间渗入的地理区域。在生态型水平上，确定DU地位必须遵循两个一般准则：独特性和重要性，即代表物种独特进化遗产的适应性。我们进一步设想，景观特性（即自然干扰的组成和模式）也将影响具有不同进化历史的北美驯鹿的种群结构、生活史和扩散行为。为了协助规划工作，我们建议使用非侵入性收集的DNA样本作为获取加拿大西部，特别是萨斯喀彻温省和马尼托巴省范围的经验遗传和基因组数据的高信息量和高成本效益的方法。

In response to the listing of boreal caribou, Environment Canada has developed a Federal Recovery Strategy (Final 2012) and identified population and distribution objectives for 51 "local populations" across the range. Boreal caribou are of special significance for conservation biologists and policy makers, because about half of the 'local populations' are putatively decreasing or are in one of the "at risk" categories (e.g. 'Threatened', 'Endangered', or 'Special Concern'). Increasing human-induced habitat disturbance and loss and changing predator-prey dynamics have been identified to different degrees as current threats for woodland caribou. Following the broad strategies and general approaches outlined in the Strategy, provincial and territorial governments are now asked to develop range plans and action plans to provide information on measures that will be taken to achieve the recovery of boreal caribou. Two fundamental components of the Recovery Strategy to be characterized are 1) the delineation of local populations, and 2) whether populations are stable, increasing or decreasing in numbers. For caribou, this represents three different biological scales: subspecies and the ecotype, as putative conservation units, or Designatable Units (DUs) as termed in Canada, and local populations. Evolutionary analysis of subspecies will be used to identify evolutionary lineages, the number and extent of glacial refugia, the post-glacial patterns of population expansion and the geographical areas of introgression between lineages. At the ecotype level, two general guidelines must be applied for establishing DU status: distinctiveness and significance, meaning adaptations representing a unique evolutionary legacy of the species. We further envision that the properties of the landscape (i.e. composition and pattern of natural disturbances) will also influence population structure, life history and dispersal behaviour of caribou with different evolutionary histories. In order to assist with the planning efforts, we propose the use of non-invasively collected DNA samples as a highly informative and cost-effective means of acquiring empirical genetic and genomic data for ranges in western Canada, specifically Saskatchewan and Manitoba.