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Molecular and morphological divergence in the inland silverside (Menidia beryllina) along a freshwater-estuarine interface

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Abstract

Populations that vary across ecological gradients or that have invaded novel habitats are important to elucidate the association between adaptive divergence and gene flow, factors that may play an important role in speciation of silverside fishes. The inland silverside, Menidia beryllina, is an ideal organism for this kind of research, displaying a great diversity in morphology among freshwater and coastal brackish habitats. Using a combination of geometric morphometrics and mitochondrial (mt) DNA, we investigated patterns of variation within and among the nominal freshwater Menidia audens and coastal M. beryllina, spanning the transition from freshwater to tidally influenced semi-brackish waters of the lower Mississippi River to brackish waters of the Lake Pontchartrain estuary. Although we found no evidence for a phylogenetic split between M. audens and M. beryllina, our results indicate that significant genetic divergence corresponds with body shape differences among the two, with a clear distinction at the interface of freshwater and brackish water. Patterns in mtDNA suggest that freshwater populations referred to as M. audens are of recent origin with evidence for habitat-based divergence compared to coastal populations referred to as M. beryllina. Our findings add to a growing body of evidence that ecological shifts, following colonization of novel habitats, may promote rapid adaptive divergence and reduced gene flow among silverside populations in adjacent environmental regimes.

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Acknowledgments

We thank M. Baranski, C. L. Fluker, and especially S. J. McCormick for their assistance with field collections. N. H. Douglas and B. A. Thompson (deceased) provided material from the Arkansas and Atchafalaya rivers and H. L. Bart Jr. and N. E. Rios gladly provided supplemental specimens from the Tulane University Museum of Natural History. We also thank D. M. Hayes for assistance with geometric morphometric and molecular techniques and data analyses. The paper benefitted greatly from comments provided by two anonymous reviewers. We also benefited from discussions of variation and ecology of Menidia audens and M. beryllina with our colleagues B.A. Thompson, R. D. Suttkus (deceased) and particularly B. Chernoff. This paper is dedicated to Thompson and Suttkus for their contributions to freshwater fish systematics and its healthy debates.

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  1. Brook L. Fluker

    Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487-0345, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Monroe, Monroe, LA, 71209, USA

    Brook L. Fluker & Russell L. Minton

  2. College of Science and Technology, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX, 78412, USA

    Frank Pezold

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  1. Brook L. Fluker
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Correspondence to Brook L. Fluker.

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Fluker, B.L., Pezold, F. & Minton, R.L. Molecular and morphological divergence in the inland silverside (Menidia beryllina) along a freshwater-estuarine interface. Environ Biol Fish 91, 311–325 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-011-9786-2

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