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Genetic Relationships of Even‐Year Northwestern Alaskan Pink Salmon
Author(s) -
Gharrett A. J.,
Smoot Cameo,
McGregor A. J.,
Holmes P. B.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1988)117<0536:groena>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - bay , oncorhynchus , geography , population , genetic divergence , genetic structure , fishery , biology , glacial period , ecology , fish <actinopterygii> , genetic variation , genetic diversity , archaeology , demography , sociology , paleontology
Even‐year cohorts of northwestern Alaskan pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha , sampled from 13 Aleutian islands, 1 Kodiak Island, and 4 eastern Bering Sea streams, were surveyed electrophoretically for 29 protein‐coding loci. We observed no significant genetic heterogeneity among collections from the Aleutian Islands or within the Bering Sea regions of Bristol Bay and Norton Sound. The Bering Sea and Aleutian Island populations were more closely related to each other than to the Kodiak Island population. This similarity may reflect patterns of post‐glacial colonization from the Bering Refuge. Genetic comparisons of northwestern Alaskan pink salmon with Asian populations from Sakhalin Island suggest that the Asian fish are most closely related to the northernmost North American populations that we collected, i.e., those of Norton Sound. Homogeneity among Aleutian Island populations is notable because the islands extend nearly 1,000 km, a distance over which pink salmon populations in other regions of Alaska exhibit genetic divergence. We propose that frequent straying, possibly a reflection of homing capabilities, may prevent genetic divergence of these populations.