Biocomplexity in populations of European anchovy in the Adriatic Sea

The sustained exploitation of marine populations requires an understanding of a species' adaptive seascape so that populations can track environmental changes from short- and long-term climate cycles and from human development. The analysis of the distributions of genetic markers among populations, together with correlates of life-history and environmental variability, can provide insights into the extent of adaptive variation. Here, we examined genetic variability among populations of mature European anchovies (n = 531) in the Adriatic (13 samples) and Tyrrhenian seas (2 samples) with neutral and putative non-neutral microsatellite loci. These genetic markers failed to confirm the occurrence of two anchovy species in the Adriatic Sea, as previously postulated. However, we found fine-scale population structure in the Adriatic, especially in northern areas, that was associated with four of the 13 environmental variables tested. Geographic gradients in sea temperature, salinity and dissol...

对海洋生物种群的可持续开发，需深入理解物种的适应性海洋生境格局，以便种群能够追踪短期、长期气候周期以及人类活动引发的环境变化。对种群间遗传标记分布的分析，结合生活史特征与环境变异的相关性研究，可揭示适应性变异的程度范围。本研究以亚得里亚海（13个采样点）与第勒尼安海（2个采样点）的531尾成熟欧洲鳀（European anchovies）为研究对象，借助中性及推定非中性的微卫星位点（microsatellite loci）开展遗传变异分析。本次使用的遗传标记未能证实此前假说提出的亚得里亚海存在两种鳀鱼物种的观点。但研究团队在亚得里亚海，尤其是北部海域，发现了精细尺度的种群遗传结构，该结构与本次检测的13项环境变量中的4项存在显著关联。海水温度、盐度及溶解...