The Cariceae (Carex & Kobresia; Cyperaceae) account for ca. 10% of Canada's native vascular plants, yet diversity within the tribe is overlooked due to its taxonomically-difficult floral morphology. DNA barcoding is a useful tool for identifying animals and the technique is currently being adapted for use in plants. This thesis develops a reference barcode database for the Cariceae of North America, north of Mexico, using the chloroplast gene matK. A species resolution rate of 39% is reported, although when broken down into political regions, this can increase to 75%. Unknown tissue samples from across North America were then identified using this reference database; 50% of these were identified to a single species matching the morphological identification, and 50% were identified to a group of taxa containing the correct identification. An ecogeographical regional database for the Arctic Archipelago was also challenged with 230 unknown samples and identified 98% to a single species.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/28543 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Chouinard, Brianna Nicole |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 187 p. |
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