Conservation of Sagebrush Ecosystems Through Diet Analysis of an Obligate Species

Kari Felton, Alex G. Hardy, Michael A. Schroeder, Ashley Martwick, Gregory Donald Randolph, Stephanie J. Galla, Jennifer Sorensen Forbey, Stephanie F. Hudon

Research output: Contribution to conferencePresentation

Abstract

Sage Grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus ) is an obligate species that depends on sagebrush to survive and serves as an indicator species and umbrella species for the sagebrush ecosystem. The sagebrush ecosystem has been declining rapidly therefore understanding the impacts on Sage Grouse could aid researchers and land managers in best practices to protect the long-term viability of the species, the ecosystem, and 350 other species that depend on it, including humans. One way to understand these impacts is through dietary indicators, such as the availability of preferred forage plants. In the past, this has been done by direct observation, which requires many hours in the field, and crop dissection, which involves collecting carcasses. These are both time-consuming and costly. Recent advances have shown that diet can be more easily and accurately determined through the sequencing of plant DNA in fecal samples targeting the ITS2 gene of plants. My project involves extracting plant DNA from fecal samples, optimizing a primer set for PCR of the ITS2 gene, performing DNA barcoding using next-generation sequencing, and comparing the results with reference genomes of plants.

Original languageAmerican English
StatePublished - 12 Jul 2024

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