Prystupa Samuel, McCracken Gregory R, Perry Robert, Ruzzante Daniel E
Department of Biology Dalhousie University Halifax NS Canada.
Present address: Department of Zoology University of Otago Dunedin New Zealand.
Ecol Evol. 2021 Apr 2;11(9):4763-4773. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7378. eCollection 2021 May.
Arctic Grayling () are among the most widely distributed and abundant freshwater fish in the Yukon Territory of Canada, yet little information exists regarding their broad and fine-scale population structures or the number and size of these populations. The estimation of population abundance is fundamental for robust management and conservation, yet estimating abundance in the wild is often difficult. Here, we estimated abundance of an Arctic Grayling population using multiple genetic markers and the close-kin mark-recapture (CKMR) method. A total of = 1,104 Arctic Grayling collected from two systems in Yukon were genotyped at 38 sequenced microsatellites. We first identified structure and assessed genetic diversity (effective population size, ). Collections from one of the systems (Lubbock River) comprised adults and young-of-the-year sampled independently allowing the identification of parent-offspring pairs (POPs), and thus, the estimation of abundance using CKMR. We used COLONY and CKMRsim to identify POPs and both provided similar results leading to indistinguishable estimates (95% CI) of census size, that is, = 1858 (1259-2457) and 1812 (1229-2389). The accuracy of the population abundance estimates can in the future be improved with temporal sampling and more precise age or size-specific fecundity estimates for Arctic Grayling. Our study demonstrates that the method can be used to inform management and conservation policy for Arctic Grayling and likely also for other fish species for which the assumption of random and independent sampling of adults and offspring can be assured.
北极茴鱼是加拿大育空地区分布最广、数量最多的淡水鱼之一，但关于其广泛和精细尺度的种群结构以及这些种群的数量和规模，现有的信息很少。种群数量的估计是稳健管理和保护的基础，但在野外估计数量往往很困难。在这里，我们使用多个遗传标记和近亲标记重捕（CKMR）方法估计了一个北极茴鱼种群的数量。从育空地区的两个水系收集了总共1104条北极茴鱼，并对38个测序微卫星进行了基因分型。我们首先确定了种群结构并评估了遗传多样性（有效种群大小， ）。从其中一个水系（拉伯克河）收集的样本包括独立采样的成年鱼和当年幼鱼，这使得我们能够识别亲子对（POPs），从而使用CKMR估计数量。我们使用COLONY和CKMRsim来识别POPs，两者得出的结果相似，导致普查规模的估计值（95%置信区间）难以区分，即 = 1858（1259 - 2457）和 1812（1229 - 2389）。未来，通过时间采样以及对北极茴鱼更精确的年龄或大小特异性繁殖力估计，可以提高种群数量估计的准确性。我们的研究表明，该方法可用于为北极茴鱼的管理和保护政策提供信息，并且可能也适用于其他能够确保成年鱼和幼鱼随机独立采样假设成立的鱼类物种。
