Kevin Rowe

Ph.D. Candidate 1998-Present

Dissertation Research

Kevin’s dissertation research addresses the role of paleohistorical and anthropogenic processes in shaping the contemporary genetic structure of eastern chipmunks, Tamias striatus, and white-footed mice, Peromyscus leucopus, in the central United States.

His research combines mitochondrial DNA sequences and microsatellite allele frequencies to test the following hypotheses in a hierarchical approach:

Hypothesis 1: Current populations of T. striatus and P. leucopus in Illinois did not originate from a single source, but are descended from multiple source populations that are concordant with current subspecies status.

Hypothesis 2: T. striatus and P. leucopus primarily followed major river basins as they recolonized Illinois and in subsequent dispersal throughout Illinois.

Hypothesis 3: T. striatus and P. leucopus populations have genealogical associations with forest types of the eastern and central United States, such that relationships among populations are more concordant with paleohabitat distributions than current geographic proximity.

Hypothesis 4: Urban and agricultural development disrupt historical processes of gene flow in T. striatus and P. leucopus such that microsatellite allele frequency variation is significantly greater across urban development than within forested habitat after controlling for distance.

Other Current Projects:
I. Landscape scale and mesocarnivore abundance over 25 years of spotlight surveys across Illinois
II. Phylogeography of Australian tropical forest rodents
III. Functional genomic consequences of inbreeding depression in Drosophila melanogaster