The American pika is a small mammal that inhabits high-elevation rock slopes throughout the western United States. Reports that pika populations are declining in the Great Basin region have raised concerns that these populations may be particularly sensitive to climate change, in part because high-elevation ecosystems are disproportionately threatened by warming temperatures. Two years of preliminary data across 69 sites suggest that precipitation patterns impact pika distribution in the southern Rocky Mountains. This research will be extended through focused monitoring of climate and pika densities at 25 sites. Gene frequencies will be compared among pika populations to determine how climate and habitat may have constrained the dispersal of pikas across this region. The intellectual merit of the proposed research lies in its investigation of why climate is impacting the pika and similar sensitive species.
This research will have several broader impacts. It will inform conservation efforts for the pika and other species that may be threatened by climate change. Mechanistic studies such as this are critical to developing the understanding needed for sustainable management of biological resources in a changing world. Second, undergraduate students will continue to play an integral role in this research. Finally, it will support develoment of a Colorado pika citizen science program that will empower local citizens to get involved in science and conservation.
The funded research was part of a larger dissertation project investigating the role of climate in American pika (Ochotona princeps) populations in the Southern Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. The American pika is a small, charismatic denizen of mountain landscapes in the western United States. Pika populations have been declining in some states in the last few decades, causing concern for populations nationwide. The primary findings of the dissertation work indicate that locations with high summer temperatures and low plant diversity are not able to sustain pikas in high densities, sometimes causing these locations to lose their populations entirely. While some such locations are able to regain populations via recolonization from adjacent populations, some of our study sites have not been recolonized. The funded work is helping us to determine why some sites are recolonized and some are not. To achieve this goal, we collected genetic material from pika at 16 locations in Colorado and New Mexico. We collected a total of 144 samples from 108 unique individual pikas via non-invasive fecal pellet sampling. While we are still in the analysis phase of this study, we can say that our success in extracting high-quality DNA non-invasively and from such a large quantity of individuals is an important step forward for both pika population biology and more generally in conservation genetics. Utilizing non-invasive techniques such as fecal pellet collection is critical for elusive or sensitive species in peril. Up until now pika biologists have also been limited in their knowledge of landscape-scale dispersal limitations for the species. Early investigation into the limitations on pika dispersal indicate that climate does play a role in pika movement across the landscape. While much is known about what drives pika occupancy, this study contributes a great deal to our understanding of what drives and limits recolonization of sites at which populations have been extirpated. Once analyses are complete, we intend to submit our results for publication in a journal such as Conservation Genetics.
