Date of Award
2018
Publisher
North Dakota State University
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Awarded
Master of Science (MS)
Program
Environmental and Conservation Science
Department
Biological Sciences
College
Graduate and Interdisciplinary Studies
Faculty Advisor
Travers, Steven
Description
The conversion of grasslands to agriculture land has made the tall grass prairie one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems and has played a key role in the decline of one particular species of rare endangered orchid, Platanthera praeclara (western prairie fringed orchid, WPFO). Loss of genetic diversity, accumulation of mutations, and inbreeding all increase the risk of extinction in endangered species. Through the use of microsatellite markers to characterize allele frequencies in six populations of WPFO, evidence of inbreeding was common and highest at the most extreme northern, southern and eastern populations. Thus, suggesting that in addition to the current conservation objectives, interventions to reduce levels of inbreeding should be an additional conservation objective. The populations that warrant the greatest effort in recovery are the populations located at the edges of the range, where plants are the most likely to experience an extinction vortex.
Recommended Citation
Tennefos, Sarah Anne, "Evidence of Inbreeding and Divergence in the Western Prairie Fringed Orchid (Platanthera praeclara)" (2018). Environmental and Conservation Sciences. 47.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/env-conservation-sci/47
Rights
NDSU Policy 190.6.2
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0003-1164-8649
Handle Identifier
https://hdl.handle.net/10365/29231