Local adaptation and genetic load in cutthroat trout

割喉鲑鱼生活在温度、水流条件和地形范围广泛的溪流中。该项目的目标是确定硬喉鲑鱼与它们所栖息的溪流的物理环境的适应程度。一项实验室实验将测量幼年西坡割喉鲑鱼如何在与它们的自然温度不同的水温中生存。一项野外实验将把几个种群的割喉鲑鱼引入目前没有鱼的溪流中，并监测每个种群的鱼是如何生存的。这两个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自然选择在地理范围内的精细程度，并最终确定适应当地环境的可能好处与近亲繁殖的影响相比如何。这将有利于渔业管理，因为将鱼类从繁盛的大种群转移到挣扎的小种群是保存割喉鲑鱼最有希望的方法之一。国家机构目前不愿转移鱼类，因为他们缺乏关于适应残酷的鲑鱼种群与其本土溪流的密切程度的知识。如果割喉鱼表现出强烈的当地适应当地环境的模式，将鱼引入一个挣扎求生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.