First Advisor

Luis A. Ruedas

Term of Graduation

Winter 2010

Date of Publication

2-19-2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Biology

Department

Biology

Language

English

Subjects

American pika -- Pacific Northwest -- Geographical distribution, American pika -- Pacific Northwest -- Phylogeny

DOI

10.15760/etd.5436

Physical Description

1 online resource (2, iii, 54 pages)

Abstract

The American pika (Ochotona princeps) finds moderately warm temperatures (>25°C) lethally stressful, and at the end of the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago was forced to disperse to cooler, "sky island" mountaintops where they are almost exclusively found today. Thirty six subspecies are recognized, all established using morphological characters, and it is uncertain whether these subspecies' designations are corroborated by genetic analyses. This study elucidates three hypotheses regarding populations in Oregon and southern Washington: 1) O. p. fumosa constitutes a subspecies distinct form O. p. brunnescens, 2) the Columbia River constitutes a barrier to gene flow giving rise to two subspecies rather than the single subspecies O. p. brunnescens, and 3) populations in eastern Oregon ( O. p. jewetti and O. p. taylori) are genetically distinct from populations in the Cascade Range (O. p. brunnescens and O. p. fumosa).

Rights

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Comments

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Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/20096

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