Genetic diversity and species diversity of stream fishes covary across a land-use gradient.

Genetic diversity and species diversity are expected to covary according to area and isolation, but may not always covary with environmental heterogeneity. In this study, we examined how patterns of genetic and species diversity in stream fishes correspond to local and regional environmental conditions. To do so, we compared population size, genetic diversity and divergence in central stonerollers (Campostoma anomalum) to measures of species diversity and turnover in stream fish assemblages among similarly sized watersheds across an agriculture-forest land-use gradient in the Little Miami River basin (Ohio, USA). Significant correlations were found in many, but not all, pair-wise comparisons. Allelic richness and species richness were strongly correlated, for example, but diversity measures based on allele frequencies and assemblage structure were not. In-stream conditions related to agricultural land use were identified as significant predictors of genetic diversity and species diversity. Comparisons to population size indicate, however, that genetic diversity and species diversity are not necessarily independent and that variation also corresponds to watershed location and glaciation history in the drainage basin. Our findings demonstrate that genetic diversity and species diversity can covary in stream fish assemblages, and illustrate the potential importance of scaling observations to capture responses to hierarchical environmental variation. More comparisons according to life history variation could further improve understanding of conditions that give rise to parallel variation in genetic diversity and species diversity, which in turn could improve diagnosis of anthropogenic influences on aquatic ecosystems.

Population genetic diversity and fitness in multiple environments.

BACKGROUND: When a large number of alleles are lost from a population, increases in individual homozygosity may reduce individual fitness through inbreeding depression. Modest losses of allelic diversity may also negatively impact long-term population viability by reducing the capacity of populations to adapt to altered environments. However, it is not clear how much genetic diversity within populations may be lost before populations are put at significant risk. Development of tools to evaluate this relationship would be a valuable contribution to conservation biology. To address these issues, we have created an experimental system that uses laboratory populations of an estuarine crustacean, Americamysis bahia with experimentally manipulated levels of genetic diversity. We created replicate cultures with five distinct levels of genetic diversity and monitored them for 16 weeks in both permissive (ambient seawater) and stressful conditions (diluted seawater). The relationship between molecular genetic diversity at presumptive neutral loci and population vulnerability was assessed by AFLP analysis. RESULTS: Populations with very low genetic diversity demonstrated reduced fitness relative to high diversity populations even under permissive conditions. Population performance decreased in the stressful environment for all levels of genetic diversity relative to performance in the permissive environment. Twenty percent of the lowest diversity populations went extinct before the end of the study in permissive conditions, whereas 73% of the low diversity lines went extinct in the stressful environment. All high genetic diversity populations persisted for the duration of the study, although population sizes and reproduction were reduced under stressful environmental conditions. Levels of fitness varied more among replicate low diversity populations than among replicate populations with high genetic diversity. There was a significant correlation between AFLP diversity and population fitness overall; however, AFLP markers performed poorly at detecting modest but consequential losses of genetic diversity. High diversity lines in the stressful environment showed some evidence of relative improvement as the experiment progressed while the low diversity lines did not. CONCLUSIONS: The combined effects of reduced average fitness and increased variability contributed to increased extinction rates for very low diversity populations. More modest losses of genetic diversity resulted in measurable decreases in population fitness; AFLP markers did not always detect these losses. However when AFLP markers indicated lost genetic diversity, these losses were associated with reduced population fitness.

Spatial and temporal genetic analyses show high gene flow among European corn borer (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) populations across the central U.S. corn belt.

European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner), adults were sampled at 13 sites along two perpendicular 720-km transects intersecting in central Iowa and for the following two generations at four of the same sites separated by 240 km in the cardinal directions. More than 50 moths from each sample location and time were genotyped at eight microsatellite loci. Spatial analyses indicated that there is no spatial genetic structuring between European corn borer populations sampled 720 km apart at the extremes of the transects and no pattern of genetic isolation by distance at that geographic scale. Although these results suggest high gene flow over the spatial scale tested, it is possible that populations have not had time to diverge since the central Corn Belt was invaded by this insect approximately 60 yr ago. However, temporal analyses of genetic changes in single locations over time suggest that the rate of migration is indeed very high. The results of this study suggest that the geographic dimensions of European corn borer populations are quite large, indicating that monitoring for resistance to transgenic Bt corn at widely separated distances is justified, at least in the central Corn Belt. High gene flow further implies that resistance to Bt corn may be slow to evolve, but once it does develop, it may spread geographically with such speed that mitigation strategies will have to be implemented quickly to be effective.

Genetic patterns across multiple introductions of the globally invasive crab genus Carcinus.

The European green crab Carcinus maenas is one of the world's most successful aquatic invaders, having established populations on every continent with temperate shores. Here we describe patterns of genetic diversity across both the native and introduced ranges of C. maenas and its sister species, C. aestuarii, including all known non-native populations. The global data set includes sequences from the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene, as well as multilocus genotype data from nine polymorphic nuclear microsatellite loci. Combined phylogeographic and population genetic analyses clarify the global colonization history of C. maenas, providing evidence of multiple invasions to Atlantic North America and South Africa, secondary invasions to the northeastern Pacific, Tasmania, and Argentina, and a strong likelihood of C. maenas x C. aestuarii hybrids in South Africa and Japan. Successful C. maenas invasions vary broadly in the degree to which they retain genetic diversity, although populations with the least variation typically derive from secondary invasions or from introductions that occurred more than 100 years ago.

Genetic diversity and structure of an estuarine fish (Fundulus heteroclitus) indigenous to sites associated with a highly contaminated urban harbor.

Intense selection on isolated populations can cause loss of genetic diversity, which if persistent, reduces adaptive potential and increases extinction probability. Phenotypic evidence of inherited tolerance suggests that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), have acted as strong selective agents on populations of a non-migratory fish, Fundulus heteroclitus, indigenous to heavily contaminated sites. To evaluate population genetic structure and test for effects of intense, multi-generational PCB contamination on genetic diversity, we used AFLP analysis on fish collected from six sites along the east coast of North America that varied widely in PCB contamination. The sites included a heavily contaminated urban harbor (New Bedford, MA), an adjacent moderately contaminated sub-estuary (Buzzards Bay, MA), and an uncontaminated estuary 60 km away (Narragansett, RI). AFLP markers distinguished populations at moderate and small scales, suggesting genetic differentiation at distances of 2 km or less. Genetic diversity did not differ across the study sites. Genome-wide diversity may have been preserved because of large effective population sizes and/or because the mechanism for genetic adaptation to these contaminants affected only a small number of loci. Alternatively, loss in diversity may have been restored with moderate levels of migration and relatively short generation time for this species.