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Genetic differentiation of three key anadromous fish populations of the Hudson River

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Abstract

Large, recreationally or commercially important populations of Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus), American shad (Alosa sapidissima), and striped bass (Morone saxatilis) occur in the Hudson River. Members of the Hudson River populations of these fishes also occur over a broad range along the Atlantic coast where they mix with conspecifics from other anadromous populations. For management purposes, it is imperative to be able to discriminate among individual stocks so that weak stocks may be protected and harvest may be allocated equitably. Because of their sensitivity and resistance to environmentally-induced temporal variation, molecular approaches have been increasingly employed in stock identification studies. However, post-Pleistocene recolonization of the Hudson River must have occurred less than 10,000 years ago—a relatively brief period for genetic divergence among populations. We tested whether various measures of DNA variation between Hudson River populations and adjacent populations of Atlantic sturgeon, American shad, and striped bass were sufficient to discriminate among their conspecific populations. American shad populations surveyed for mtDNA variation were highly diverse genotypically, but genotypic frequencies among the populations of the Connecticut, Hudson, and Delaware rivers were statistically homogenous (p>0.05). In contrast, Atlantic sturgeon (surveyed for mtDNA variation) and striped bass (surveyed for mtDNA and nuclear DNA variation) populations of the Hudson River were not genotypically diverse, but they were differentiated from northern and southern populations. Our results suggest higher gene flow (and lesser homing fidelity) among American shad populations in comparison with the two other species.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hudson River Foundation, 40 West 20th Street, Ninth Floor, 10011, New York, New York

    John R. Waldman

  2. Department of Biology, St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street, 11201, Brooklyn, New York

    Kathleen Nolan

  3. Institute of Environmental Medicine, New York University Medical Center, Long Meadow Road, 10987, Tuxedo, New York

    John Hart

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  1. John R. Waldman
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  2. Kathleen Nolan
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  3. John Hart
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Waldman, J.R., Nolan, K. & Hart, J. Genetic differentiation of three key anadromous fish populations of the Hudson River. Estuaries 19, 759–768 (1996). https://doi.org/10.2307/1352295

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