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Rainbow Trout of the Athabasca River, Alberta: A Unique Population
Author(s) -
Carl L. M.,
Hunt C.,
Ihssen P. E.
Publication year - 1994
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(1994)123<0129:rtotar>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - rainbow trout , fish migration , meristics , fishery , arctic , trout , population , ecology , biology , geography , fish <actinopterygii> , demography , sociology
Rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss native to the Athabasca River of the Arctic Ocean drainage differed at several allozyme loci from rainbow trout and anadromous steelhead populations in the adjacent Fraser River and Columbia River drainages. A dendrogram of genetic distances suggested that the rainbow trout from the Athabasca River drainage are genetically distinct from other inland and coastal rainbow trout and steelhead. Principal component analysis of meristic data supported the allozyme analysis and indicated two main groupings, inland and coastal, that both were distinct from the Athabasca fish. The Athabasca rainbow trout appear to have been reproductively isolated for at least 64,000 years, since the recession of the early‐Wisconsin glaciation, possibly in an inland refuge in southwest Alberta.