Local adaptation and genetic load in cutthroat trout

切喉鳟鱼生活在溪流，有广泛的温度，流动条件和地形。这个项目的目标是确定如何密切适应割喉鳟鱼是他们居住的溪流的物理环境。一个实验室实验将测量如何少年西坡割喉鳟鱼生存的水温是不同于他们的本地温度。一项实地实验将把几个种群的割喉鳟鱼引入一条目前没有鱼的河流，并监测每个种群的鱼是如何生存的。这两项实验都将使用占据各种栖息地的鱼类。 这项研究将有助于确定地理范围内自然选择的作用有多精细，以及最终如何将适应当地环境的可能好处与近亲繁殖的影响进行比较。这将有利于渔业管理，因为将鱼类从繁荣的大型种群转移到挣扎的小型种群是保护割喉鳟鱼最有希望的方法之一。 国家机构目前不愿意移动鱼类，因为他们缺乏关于如何密切适应割喉鳟鱼种群是他们的本地溪流的知识。如果割喉者表现出强烈的局部适应性，那么将鱼类引入一个挣扎生存的种群可能弊大于利。该项目为研究生、本科生和高中生提供研究培训。

Cutthroat trout live in streams that have a wide range of temperatures, flow conditions, and topography. The goal of this project is to determine how closely adapted cutthroat trout are to the physical environment of the streams that they inhabit. A laboratory experiment will measure how juvenile westslope cutthroat trout survive in water temperatures that are different from their native temperature. A field experiment will introduce several populations of cutthroat trout into a stream currently having no fish and monitor how fish from each population survive. Both experiments will use fish occupying a wide variety of habitats. This research will help determine how fine of a geographic scale natural selection operates, and ultimately, how the possible benefits of adaptation to a local environment compare to impacts of inbreeding. This will benefit fisheries management because moving fish from large thriving populations to small struggling populations is one of the most promising methods for preserving cutthroat trout. State agencies are currently reluctant to move fish because they lack knowledge regarding how closely adapted cutthroat trout populations are to their native streams. If cutthroats show strong patterns of local adaptation to their native environment, introducing fish into a population struggling to survive could do more harm than good. This project provides research training to graduate, undergraduate, and high school students.