Using genetics to determine the breeding areas of Common Eiders harvested in the Atlantic Flyway

Project Number: 150

Year Funded: 2016

Lead Institution(s): US Geological Survey

Project Lead: Sarah Sonsthagen

Email:

Collaborator(s): Chris Dwyer (USGS), Scott Gilliland (CWS)

Location: Atlantic Flyway

Focal Species: Common Eider (Somateria mollissima)

Project Description: An assessment of the harvest potential of American common eiders suggested that under current harvest policies and given our understanding of demographic information throughout the range of this species, there is a substantial risk of overharvest. Furthermore, American common eiders may be experiencing different demographic rates throughout their breeding range (i.e., declining abundance in Maine & Maritime Canada, stable to increasing in the St. Lawrence estuary, and an increasing population in along the Northshore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence & in Newfoundland and southern Labrador). Determining the geographic source(s) of common eiders in the U.S. and Canadian harvest may help reduce uncertainty in harvest management decision-making, develop priority areas for habitat conservation efforts and identify potential differences in relative productivity across the breeding range of American common eiders. We are applying a genetic approach to probabilistically assign common eiders harvested along the Atlantic Flyway to natal areas. Genetic information from 12 microsatellite loci, mtDNA control region, and 9 restriction site associated DNA loci have been collected from breeding reference locations and hunter-harvested eiders during the 2013/14 to 2019/20 seasons in the Atlantic Flyway.

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