COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: RAPID: Using river restoration to test the ecological and evolutionary effects of secondary contact

在许多水生生态系统中，大坝隔离了鱼类种群数十年至数百年，隔离的种群在形态和遗传上都发生了分化。随着这些水坝被拆除或恢复工作恢复空间连通性，以前孤立的种群之间将发生二次接触。这个快速项目将研究的生态和进化的后果，初级阶段的二次接触;恢复河流连通性将很快允许二次接触之间的溯河产卵alewife人口和内陆人口罗杰斯湖，康涅狄格州。在过去的250-350年里，形态、觅食行为和迁徙的差异改变了这两种灰背鹭生活史形式的生态作用。研究人员将利用遗传标记来追踪基因渗入，以检查溯河产卵和内陆产灰背海鲱之间的近亲繁殖。它将记录食物网结构，营养负荷，栖息地和资源利用的alewife在二次接触开始的变化。通过记录这些重要的直接和间接的影响，溯河产卵和内陆人口之间的初步接触，该项目将大大推进我们的理解的过程是根本的起源和维护的biodiversity.Although溯河产卵alevieves是一个重要的资源，在淡水和海洋栖息地和联邦政府列入保护关注的物种，内陆alevieves是入侵其范围。研究人员将继续与当地湖泊协会，土地信托基金和区域保护和管理社区合作，通过贡献本研究的结果来帮助溯河产卵的alewife恢复工作。他们将利用美国国立卫生研究院资助的耶鲁大学项目，招募代表性不足的少数民族本科生参加该项目，并将在研究，研究方法，数据分析以及书面和口头项目报告的更广泛的科学背景下对他们进行培训。还计划向公众进行外联会谈，针对代表性不足的少数群体的教育方案，互动展示以及通过互联网和社交媒体进行数字外联。

In many aquatic ecosystems, dams have isolated fish populations for decades to centuries and the isolated populations have diverged both morphologically and genetically. Secondary contact between previously isolated populations will occur as these dams are removed or restoration efforts restore spatial connectivity. This RAPID project will examine the ecological and evolutionary consequences of the initial stages of secondary contact; restoration of river connectivity will soon allow secondary contact between anadromous alewife populations and landlocked populations in Rogers Lake, Connecticut. Divergence in morphology, foraging behavior, and migration has altered the ecological role of these two alewife life history forms over the past 250-350 years. Research will examine the inbreeding between anadromous and landlocked alewife using genetic markers to track introgression. It will document changes in food web structure, nutrient loading, and habitat and resource use by alewife at the initiation of secondary contact. By documenting these important direct and indirect effects of initial contact between anadromous and landlocked populations, the project will significantly advance our understanding of a process that is fundamental to the origin and maintenance of biodiversity.Although anadromous alewives are a critical resource in freshwater and marine habitats and a federally listed species of conservation concern, landlocked alewives are invasive across their range. The investigators will continue work with local lake associations, land trusts and the regional conservation and management community to aid anadromous alewife restoration efforts by contributing results from this study. They will take advantage of an NIH-funded Yale program to recruit under-represented minority undergraduate students to the project, and will train them in the broader scientific context of the research, research methods, data analysis, and written and oral project reports. Outreach talks to the general public, education programs targeting underrepresented minority groups, interactive displays, and digital outreach via internet and social media are also planned.