Harvesting consequences on genetic diversity and metapopulation effective size in a spatially stratified system, the Kogaluk river drainage in northern Labrador

进化和保护生物学中的一个基本问题是栖息地破碎化的变化（即，数量，大小，空间排列和栖息地片段之间的连接性）影响遗传多样性的维持和集合种群的有效大小（metaNe）。这是一个问题，尽管它对生物多样性保护的重要性，但在很大程度上只从理论角度进行了探讨。早期的模型一致地得出了有点矛盾的结论，即碎片化系统的有效大小通常高于总大小相等的panmictic系统的有效大小，这一结论来自所有亚群对下一代的贡献相等的限制性模型假设。最近的一个模型，其中包括亚群灭绝和灭绝的可能性表明，MetaNe确实可以显着减少时，允许亚群差异贡献给下一代。这一理论在很大程度上与经验数据不符。因此，我们在这个项目中的目标是缩小这一差距。我们将研究亚群的大小和多样性，基因流（不对称）和元之间的关系在淡水社区的三种鱼类不同的生活史：湖鳟鱼（红点鲑namaycush），长鼻吸盘（Catostomus catostomus），白色roundfish（Prosopium cylyndraceum）和共存共域的Kogaluk河流域在北方拉布拉多。该水系包括一些等级或树枝状相互连接的浅湖，这些浅湖位于贫瘠的土地上，流入深峡湾湖。我们的研究，使用分子标记将使我们能够预测的集合种群的组成部分更有可能影响元Ne，如果受到影响，从而应获得最高的保护优先级时，面对收获和/或气候引起的景观变化。我们的研究，与环境和保护部的纽芬兰和拉布拉多野生动物司合作进行符合战略目标区自然资源和能源和研究课题（B）自然资源优化提取，收获和更新。

A fundamental question in evolutionary and conservation biology is how changes in habitat fragmentation (i.e., number, size, spatial arrangement and connectivity among habitat fragments) affect the maintenance of genetic diversity and the effective size of a metapopulation (metaNe). This is an issue that despite its importance for biodiversity conservation has largely been explored only from a theoretical perspective. Early models uniformly reached the somewhat paradoxical conclusion that the effective size of a fragmented system was generally higher than that of a panmictic system of equal total size, a conclusion that followed from the restrictive model assumption of equal contribution to the next generation by all subpopulations. A more recent model that includes the possibility of subpopulation extinction and recolonization demonstrates that metaNe can indeed be significantly reduced when subpopulations are allowed to contribute differentially to the next generation. This theory has remained largely unmatched by empirical data. Our goal in this project is thus to reduce this gap. We will examine the relationship between subpopulation size and diversity, gene flow (asymmetry) and metaNe in a freshwater community of three fish species differing in life histories: Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), longnose sucker (Catostomus catostomus), white roundfish (Prosopium cylyndraceum) and coexisting sympatrically in the Kogaluk river drainage in northern Labrador. This drainage comprises a number of hierarchically or dendritically interconnected shallow lakes on the barren grounds that drain onto a deep fjord lake. Our research using molecular markers will allow us to predict which components of the metapopulations are more likely to affect metaNe if affected and which should thus receive highest conservation priority when faced with harvesting and/or climate induced changes in landscape. Our research, conducted in collaboration with the Wildlife Division of the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Environment and Conservation fits within the Strategic Target Area Natural Resources and Energy and research topic (b) NR Optimizing Resource Extraction, Harvesting and Renewal.