New paper: effect of conservation refugia on biodiversity
What is the impact of the 'refuge' or 'ark population' conservation measure on biodiversity? Masters/Honours student Peter Koene along with PhD student Marco Crotti have completed a project on how morphologies and plasticity change in new habitats and after population bottlenecks, studying powan or European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) here in Scotland.
Full paper is available here
"Differential selection pressures result in a rapid divergence of donor and refuge populations of a high conservation value freshwater fish Coregonus lavaretus (L.)"
J. Peter Koene, Marco Crotti, Kathryn R Elmer, Colin E Adams
Abstract
As a conservation measure to protect European whitefish in Scotland, a translocated popu-lation was established in Loch Sloy from Loch Lomond stock between 1988 and 1990. Previous study has assumed that current morphological differences between adults from the donor and refuge lakes have arisen through phenotypic plasticity. The present study compared the morphologies of whitefish at three life stages: alevins and fry raised in a common garden, and wild-caught adults. Alevins were clearly distinguishable by their lake of origin. Loch Sloy alevins were distinguishable also by family, although this was not the case for Loch Lomond. Differential allometric trajectories facilitated the persistence of morphological differences associated with lake of origin through the fry stage into adult-hood. Overall, the whitefish from Loch Lomond displayed morphologies associated with pelagic feeders, while the more robust heads and ventrally positioned snouts of the Loch Sloy whitefish conformed to expectations for more benthic feeding habits. That differences between populations were present not only in wild adults, but also in alevins and fry from a common garden setup, strongly suggests that the divergence between populations is due to inheritance mechanisms, rather than differential plastic responses, and questions the effec-tiveness of translocation as a conservation measure.
Keywords Whitefish · Conservation · Translocation · Divergence · Morphology
Full paper is available here
"Differential selection pressures result in a rapid divergence of donor and refuge populations of a high conservation value freshwater fish Coregonus lavaretus (L.)"
J. Peter Koene, Marco Crotti, Kathryn R Elmer, Colin E Adams
Abstract
As a conservation measure to protect European whitefish in Scotland, a translocated popu-lation was established in Loch Sloy from Loch Lomond stock between 1988 and 1990. Previous study has assumed that current morphological differences between adults from the donor and refuge lakes have arisen through phenotypic plasticity. The present study compared the morphologies of whitefish at three life stages: alevins and fry raised in a common garden, and wild-caught adults. Alevins were clearly distinguishable by their lake of origin. Loch Sloy alevins were distinguishable also by family, although this was not the case for Loch Lomond. Differential allometric trajectories facilitated the persistence of morphological differences associated with lake of origin through the fry stage into adult-hood. Overall, the whitefish from Loch Lomond displayed morphologies associated with pelagic feeders, while the more robust heads and ventrally positioned snouts of the Loch Sloy whitefish conformed to expectations for more benthic feeding habits. That differences between populations were present not only in wild adults, but also in alevins and fry from a common garden setup, strongly suggests that the divergence between populations is due to inheritance mechanisms, rather than differential plastic responses, and questions the effec-tiveness of translocation as a conservation measure.
Keywords Whitefish · Conservation · Translocation · Divergence · Morphology
