The Centre for Wildlife Ecology has several studies underway that address conservation issues affecting sea ducks along the Pacific coast. The issues, species, and populations being studied are shared concerns of the Centre for Wildlife Ecology, the Canadian Wildlife Service, and agency and academic collaborators throughout North America.
Sea duck Bibliography as compiled by Dan Esler
On 24 March 1989, the T/V Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling approximately 41 million liters of crude oil (Piatt and Lensink 1989, Piatt et al. 1990). Subsequent wind and ocean currents spread the oil southwest through Prince William Sound (PWS), along the Kenai and Alaska Peninsulas, and along the Kodiak Archipelago. Much of the oil was deposited in nearshore intertidal and subtidal habitats (ADEC 1992, Neff et al. 1995), which are of importance to a large number of vertebrates including molting and wintering waterfowl.
Understanding the ecological and evolutionary forces which influence the abundance and diversity of biological resources is important for effective management and conservation. In the absence of important ecological data on movements and breeding ecology, molecular genetic markers can provide critical empirical sources of data. Results from studies of the threatened spectacled eider (Somateria fischeri) are described based on molecular markers with different patterns of inheritance.
We sequenced a hypervariable 319 bp portion of the control region of mitochondrial DNA in five subspecies of Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima) and an outgroup sample of King Eiders (S. spectabilis). Variation was found at 71 sites (22%), which defined 56 haplotypes in the total sample. A genealogical tree relating the haplotypes revealed three major clades, but with the exception of Common Eiders (S. v-nigra) from Alaska, they did not correspond with putative subspecies identities.