Browsing by Author "Brouellette, Lisa"

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    CFANS Semester Study Abroad in Nepal
    (University of Minnesota Tourism Center, 2014) Brouellette, Lisa; Flynn, Mike; Folsom, Paul; Hill, Alicia; Nichols, Leiloni; Seaman, Kristin; Shine, Logan
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    Cloacal swabbing as a tool to study diet in migrating raptors using DNA metabarcoding
    (2021-05) Brouellette, Lisa
    While much research has gone into understanding the timing and patterns of migration, little has been done to understand the diet of raptors during migration. Most raptor dietary studies focus on the breeding season or winter, but migratory diet may be quite different due to differences in habitat type and prey availability along migration flyways. Here, we tested the efficacy of DNA metabarcoding to detect prey DNA on cloacal swabs. In 2019, we collected cloacal swabs from raptors during spring and fall migration in Duluth, MN. We analyzed 287 cloacal swabs from 11 species of raptors. We hypothesized that detection of dietary DNA on cloacal swabs would be influenced by the species of raptor swabbed, the size of the raptor, and migratory flight strategy (passive/soaring flight vs. active flight). Prey DNA was detected on 18.46% of cloacal swabs. Using a generalized linear model, we found that neither species, size, nor migratory flight strategy were better than the null model at explaining differences in detection of dietary DNA. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use cloacal swabbing and DNA metabarcoding to detect dietary DNA and our results indicate that this method has potential for further use.
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    Using DNA metabarcoding to study the diet of raptors during migration (2020-11-13)
    (2020) Brouellette, Lisa; University of Minnesota Duluth. Department of Biology
    Duluth, Minnesota is home to one of the largest raptor migrations in North America. Every autumn, tens of thousands of raptors from more than a dozen different species are counted flying past Hawk Ridge on their way south. While much research has gone into understanding the timing and patterns of migration, little has been done to understand the diet of raptors during migration. Most raptor dietary studies focus on the breeding season or winter, but migratory diet may be quite different due to differences in habitat type and prey availability along migration flyways. Understanding diet during the full life cycle has important implications for conservation, ecotoxicology, and land management. My work investigates the use of DNA metabarcoding on cloacal swab samples to study the diet of migrating raptors. I collected cloacal swabs from raptors at Hawk Ridge in 2019 and amplified the DNA using primers to target mammalian and avian prey DNA. Prey DNA was detected on approximately 20% of the swabs, indicating that this method has potential for future use.