The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) allows listing of subspecies and other groupings below the rank of species. This provides the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service with a means to target the most critical unit in need of conservation. While roughly one-quarter of listed taxa are subspecies, these management agencies are hindered by uncertainties about taxonomic standards during listing or delisting activities. In a review of taxonomic publications and societies, we found few subspecies lists and none that stated standardized criteria for determining subspecific taxa. Lack of criteria is attributed to a centuries-old debate over species and subspecies concepts. However, the critical need to resolve this debate for ESA listings lead us to propose that minimal biological criteria to define disjunct subspecies (legally or taxonomically) should include the discreteness and significance criteria of Distinct Population Segments (as defined under the ESA). Our subspecies criteria are in stark contrast to that proposed by supporters of the Phylogenetic Species Concept and provide a clear distinction between species and subspecies. Efforts to eliminate or reduce ambiguity associated with subspecies-level classifications will assist with ESA listing decisions. Thus, we urge professional taxonomic societies to publish and periodically update peer-reviewed species and subspecies lists. This effort must be paralleled throughout the world for efficient taxonomic conservation to take place.

We used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences to investigate the demographic history of the wood stork (Mycteria americana) populations in the Brazilian Pantanal. Sequences of 390/460 bp fragment of the mtDNA control region were analyzed in 62 wood stork specimens from 8 colonies using neutrality tests, phylogeographic, and coalescent analyses. Population expansion was supported by the significantly negative values of Tajima's (D = -2.071) and Fu's (Fs = -14.544) statistics and the unimodal pattern of mismatch distribution. Nested clade analyses indicated a historic range expansion event and recurrent gene flow that was restricted by isolation by distance as explanations for the haplotype distribution among the sampled colonies. High genetic diversity and the strictly unidirectional gene flow pattern emphasized the conservation importance of preserving the southern Pantanal colonies. Coalescence analyses suggested that northern and southern colonies diverged approximately 6,250 years before the present (YBP), and that their most recent common ancestor was approximately 18,900 YBP. Our results suggest that the contemporary wood stork Pantanal population originated from a more geographically limited founder population. Potential source populations may have occurred in the southern Pantanal or ancestry may reside in populations inhabiting the Brazilian central plateau or areas closer to the equatorial region.

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The present study inferred the genetic mating system in a natural breeding population of the Jabiru Stork (Jabiru mycteria), a Neotropical wading bird considered endangered in part of its distribution range. Based on data from eight microsatellite loci, maximum-likelihood kinship reconstruction techniques, parentage assignment analyses and effective population size (Ne) estimates were applied to samples collected in the Brazilian Pantanal wetland (N = 45 nestlings from 20 nests; N = 17 shed adult feathers from 11 nests). The relationship diagnosis was determined for most of the complete clutches (86.66 %): 92.31 % were full siblings and 7.69 % were half siblings. Shed feathers collected from the nests matched the genetic parents of the offspring in 80 % of cases. Feathers collected from the ground below the nests were compatible with the putative parents in 41.67 % of cases. A mean Ne of 35 reproductive individuals was inferred, corresponding to an Ne/Nc ratio of 0.09, which is similar to the ratio found in populations of a number of different wild animals. The higher proportion of full siblings identified in the broods suggests that genetic monogamy is the prevalent mating system in the Jabiru Stork, while the detection of half siblings suggests some degree of extra-pair paternity. The present findings are in agreement with previous ecological observations of social monogamy in this species, despite the isolated evidence of extra-pair copulation events. This study also demonstrates the usefulness of a noninvasive approach to sampling adults and performing parentage and relatedness analyses in an elusive, threatened species.

ABSTRACT. The wood stork (Mycteria americana) is a colonial wading bird that inhabits the Neotropical region from the southeastern United States (US) to northern Argentina. The species is considered to be endangered in the US due to degradation of its foraging and breeding habitat. In other parts of its range, such as in the Brazilian Pantanal region, breeding populations of this species appear to be stable. We compared the levels of genetic variability and population structuring of the US and the Pantanal breeding populations using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region 1910-1922 (2011) Mitochondrial DNA diversity of wood storks sequences. Twenty-seven haplotypes were identified among 88 wood stork samples collected from eight breeding colonies in the US and eight in the Pantanal. Patterns indicative of heteroplasmy were observed in 35.3% of the mtDNA sequences that were examined. Significantly higher levels of haplotype diversity were observed in the Pantanal samples compared to those from the US, suggesting that during the last century, demographic declines or a recent evolutionary bottleneck reduced the levels of mtDNA variability of the US population. Analyses of genetic structuring revealed non-significant genetic differentiation between these regions, indicating that either the populations were only recently separated or that gene flow continues to occur at low levels. Haplotype network analysis indicated low current levels of gene flow between populations that were closely related in the past.

2 determine the distribution and abundance of neotropical water birds;3 investigate the use of habitat by nearctic and neotropical species.It is expected that through this work, the bases to assess potential or effective impacts of business ventures, which may have an effect on the region's water regime, will be established.These were the first large scale surveys carried out in the Pantanal for these avifaunal groups.The Graminease family, mainly found in the Nhecolândia region, showed to be very important for two nearctic shorebird species.In contrast, the majority of the neotropical species groups were found in the most diverse habitats and regions of the Pantanal.Generally speaking, the number of neotropical and nearctic shorebirds found in the salt water lagoons are of international The distribution characteristic of the shorebird species in the Pantanal shows that special conservation measures need to be applied to this important bird group.

Five breeding colonies of the Roseate spoonbill (Aves: Platalea ajaja) from two Brazilian wetland areas (Pantanal and Taim marshes) were sampled, and domain I of the mitochondrial DNA control region (483 bp) was sequenced in 50 birds. The average haplotype diversity (h = 0.75, s = 0.071) and average nucleotide diversity (pi = 0.004, s = 0.003) were evaluated, and nonsignificant differences were found among the colonies studied. The lack of differentiation among breeding colonies revealed by AMOVA analysis was explained either as a consequence of high gene flow or recent expansion. The significantly negative results of the neutrality tests (Fu's F ( s ) = -23.271, P < 0.01; Tajima's D = -1.941, P < 0.01) associated with the star shape of the haplotype tree and mismatch distribution data are evidence supporting the idea that these populations underwent a recent demographic expansion in the Pantanal region. The average time since the expansion is estimated to be 25,773 years, and this agrees with a period of increased moisture that occurred during the last glacial period.

Conservation‐oriented studies of Micronesian Kingfishers (Todiramphus cinnamominus) have been hindered by a lack of basic natural history information, despite the status of the Guam subspecies (T. c. cinnamominus) as one of the most endangered species in the world. We used tissue samples and morphometric measures from museum specimens and wild‐captured Pohnpei Micronesian Kingfishers (T. c. reichenbachii) to develop methods for sex determination. We present a modified molecular protocol and a discriminant function that yields the probability that a particular individual is male or female. Our results revealed that females were significantly larger than males, and the discriminant function correctly predicted sex in 73% (30/41) of the individuals. The sex of 86% (18/21) of individuals was correctly assigned when a moderate reliability threshold was set. Sex determination using molecular genetic techniques was more reliable than methods based on morphology. Our results will facilitate recovery efforts for the critically endangered Guam Micronesian Kingfisher and provide a basis for sex determination in the 11 other endangered congeners in the Pacific Basin.