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Genetic estimation of evolutionary and contemporary effective population size in lake sturgeon ( A cipenser fulvescens Rafinesque, 1817) populations
Author(s) -
Wilson C. C.,
McDermid J. L.,
Wozney K. M.,
Kjartanson S.,
Haxton T. J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of applied ichthyology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1439-0426
pISSN - 0175-8659
DOI - 10.1111/jai.12615
Subject(s) - lake sturgeon , biology , acipenser , effective population size , sturgeon , genetic diversity , phylogeography , population , ecology , population size , genetic structure , fishery , zoology , phylogenetics , fish <actinopterygii> , demography , biochemistry , sociology , gene
Summary The potential of sturgeon species and populations to adapt to current challenges and changing conditions will depend on their adaptive resources and capacity, which can be inferred from their genetic effective population size ( N e ). Existing microsatellite genetic data from published studies were used to estimate N e of lake sturgeon ( Acipenser fulvescens ) across hierarchical spatial and temporal scales. Previous analysis of mitochondrial DNA data suggested that the species has an evolutionary female effective population size ( N ef ) of ~8000, substantially lower than other North American freshwater fish species with similar distributions. Phylogeographic data were used to reconstruct the genetic makeup and diversity of phylogeographic lineages, and compare the genetic diversity and N e of contemporary Canadian populations to their ancestral founding populations. A similar approach was used to estimate ancestral N e for fragmented populations in formerly continuous habitats. On the finest spatiotemporal scale, point estimates of N e for sturgeon populations in contiguous river fragments were compared against N e values from reconstructed ancestral (pre‐fragmentation historical) populations to assess changes in N e since fragmentation occurred. These results illustrate the versatility of genetic data for estimating historical demographics of sturgeon, as well as providing information on their adaptive potential and long‐term sustainability if given the ecological opportunity.