Type: report

Article abstract: In this study, we mined museum collections for genetic material collected prior to widespread urban development over the second half of the 20th century in coastal southern California. We analyzed population structure and genetic diversity in these historical populations of cactus wrens using a suite of microsatellites previously developed for the species (Barr et al. 2012). Old and degraded sources of DNA can be difficult to amplify and present high levels of allelic dropout and null alleles, both of which can confound genetic structure analyses. 4 With a large number of available loci, we were able to rigorously limit analyses to only those with reliable and consistent amplification. We also utilized analyses that explicitly account for the presence of allelic dropout. With these data, we assessed historical population structure and genetic diversity in cactus wrens in coastal southern California and compared these to contemporary patterns.