EAPSI: Population Dynamics of a Semi-Terrestrial Fishes Across the South and East China Sea

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Most fishes are limited to aquatic environments, but about 70 of 32,000 ray-finned fishes, including mudskippers, are amphibious, or able to survive in terrestrial environments, often for the purposes of reproduction. This behavior is important because many coastal areas are subject to habitat destruction via sea walls, light and noise pollution, urbanization and destruction of mudflats/coastal land, making coastal habitats uninhabitable for periods of time. Over time, the inability to colonize coastal areas over a large geographic area can compromise a species' survival. While amphibious life history limits opportunities for dispersal ability to a specific life stage, many amphibious species have geographic distributions, which span multiple oceans. To address these issues, this research aims to understand the effects of variations in life history on the flow of genes across mudskipper populations. This study will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Zhang Chunguang, a researcher with significant experience researching the adaptations of pertaining to mudskippers. Dr. Zhang is a research professor at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.An amphibious mudskipper species samples (Periophthalmus modestus) from along the cost of mainland China will be studied, in addition to previously collected sample from Taiwan and Japan. Genomic DNA sequencing will be done to understand the population structure of the species across the East and South China Sea. Variation in DNA sequences will be compared to understand patterns of movement between coastal areas of China and the surrounding islands. To understand the importance of amphibious life history, population structure will be examined against ocean currents and coastal land use to determine if land use plays a role in movement of mudskippers. This project will help bridge the lingering gap between the ecological importance of variation in life history and evolutionary significance of gene flow. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.