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，堤坝将鱼类种群隔离了数十年至数百年，隔离的种群在形态和基因上都出现了分化。随着这些大坝的拆除或修复工作恢复空间连接，以前与世隔绝的人口之间将发生二次接触。这一快速项目将研究二次接触初期阶段的生态和进化后果；河流连通性的恢复将很快使康涅狄格州罗杰斯湖的水生动物种群和内陆种群之间进行二次接触。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妻子生活史形式的生态作用。研究将使用遗传标记来追踪渐渗，研究顺水型和内陆型雌雄之间的近亲繁殖。它将记录在第二次接触开始时妻子在食物网结构、营养负荷以及栖息地和资源使用方面的变化。通过记录滨水区和内陆种群之间最初接触的这些重要的直接和间接影响，该项目将极大地促进我们对生物多样性起源和维持的基本过程的理解。尽管滨水区的斑羚是淡水和海洋栖息地的重要资源，也是联邦政府列入保护名单的物种，但内陆斑羚在它们的范围内是入侵的。调查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，通过贡献这项研究的结果来帮助滨水区妻子的恢复工作。他们将利用美国国立卫生研究院资助的耶鲁大学项目招收代表不足的少数族裔本科生参加该项目，并将在更广泛的科学背景下培训他们，包括研究、研究方法、数据分析以及书面和口头项目报告。还计划与普通公众进行外联谈话，针对代表性不足的少数群体的教育项目，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.