Conservation genetics of the endangered Florida Key deer /
The Florida Key deer, Odocoileus virginianus clavium, was listed federally as endangered in 1967 after a population bottleneck reduced the population to approximately 35 to 80 deer. While its range remains restricted to a few islands of the lower Florida Keys, geographically isolated from mainland...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
2001.
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| Summary: | The Florida Key deer, Odocoileus virginianus clavium, was listed federally as endangered in 1967 after a population bottleneck reduced the population to approximately 35 to 80 deer. While its range remains restricted to a few islands of the lower Florida Keys, geographically isolated from mainland Florida, the population has since rebounded to over 600 deer. To further evaluate a previously observed close phylogenetic relationship between Florida Key deer and populations in southern Florida as well as reduced genetic variation in the Key deer, I screened 7 microsatellite loci for 148 Key deer and 132 deer from 12 populations distributed throughout the southeastern United States. Six of the loci exhibited high diversity; with 10-20 alleles per locus, yet 2 were monomorphic in the Key deer population. Despite a 7-fold increase in sample size, the Key deer population demonstrated reduced genetic variation as compared to other sampled populations, including a reduced number of alleles per locus (2.14 compared to 4.14-7.86) and mean observed heterozygosity (0.242 compared to 0.429-0.639). Analysis of genotypic variation using proportion of shared alleles and an assignment table grouped all Key deer closest together, while genotypes from other populations overlapped. Estimates of genetic subdivision revealed Key deer to be more subdivided from other regional populations ([]W = 0.3839-0.5157, Rho_st = 0.1654-0.5912) than they were from each other ([]W = 0.0141-0.1605, Rho_st = 0-0.3493). Neighbor-joining trees based on Nei's DS and two distances calculated from genotypic variation (D[][] and D[][]) found the Key deer and Everglades populations to be divergent from other southeastern populations. Within the Florida Keys, genotypic variation was unable to group individuals by sampling locality. Similarly, estimates of genetic subdivision did not indicate any barriers to dispersal between Big Pine, No Name, and Little Palm Keys or between deer found on opposing sides of US Highway 1 and Key Deer Boulevard. This indicates a lack of genetic structuring among deer on these islands and suggests movements of deer to neighboring islands as a means to reduce overpopulation on Big Pine Key should not affect present patterns of genetic variation. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major subject: Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences". |
| Physical Description: | xi, 71 leaves : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from Lange Micrographics. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 33-38). |