Genetic integrity of European grayling (Thymallus thymallus L. 1758) within the Vienne River drainage basin after five decades of stockings
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1
Université Lyon Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France
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2
University of Graz, Institute of Zoology, Austria
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3
Fédération de la Haute-Vienne pour la Pêche et la Protection du Milieu Aquatique, France
European grayling of the upper Vienne River drainage basin represent the westernmost populations inside the natural distribution of the species. Since the 19th century, their extension across this sub-basin has been dramatically reduced by the harnessing of the river network for dams, initially serving mills but then hydroelectric power generation. Since the 1960s, local fishing authorities have attempted to compensate for these declines with stocking programs, but the efficiency of these efforts have never been accurately monitored. We aim to evaluate the genetic imprints of these stocking programs and thus provide an indirect measure of the long-term survival of stocked fish.
Three target populations were analyzed at both mtDNA (Control Region) and nDNA levels (12 µSats), and compared to populations representative of surrounding drainage basins or fish farm facilities. Among 37 "wild" fish sequenced, only three control region haplotypes were identified, all belonging to the highly divergent Loire basin lineage. Two were specific to the Upper Vienne area, and one was observed in some individuals of the most downstream location, but previously described from the upper Allier sub-drainage. Microsatellite analysis of 87 "wild" fish also demonstrated a rather low diversity within each population (but typical for the Loire drainage) with all Upper Vienne individuals belonging to a single diagnosable unit. This genetic cluster was clearly distinct from all other samples including hatchery strains, which strongly supports its native origin. The only piece of evidence of a possible stocking contribution was the occurrence of the Allier haplotype, but it cannot be excluded that this haplotype was also native to this reach of river.
The total lack of genetic impact of five decades of stocking deeply questions the efficacy of this management approach, at least in a regional context.
Acknowledgements
Were are deeply indebted to the "Fédération Nationale de la Pêche en France" for having funded half the costs of this work, the remaining being in charge of our respective institutions which we are also grateful to. We are also indebted to two Angling Societies for having kindly provided samples of the fish they stocked, and to Martin Gerber for those of the Federal 67 Obenheim fish farm. We thanks also the fisheries officers of the Haute-Vienne Fishing Federation for their help in the electric fishing operations we performed to collect the wild specimens used in this study.
References
PERSAT H., WINKLER K., SCHENEKAR T., MATTERSDORFER K. & WEISS S., 2013. Diversité génétique des populations d’ombre commun du département de la Haute-Loire. Technical report, UMR 5023 University Lyon 1 and Zoology Institut of Graz University, 27p.
Keywords:
Population Genetics,
conservation biology,
fry stockings,
Vienne river basin,
Thymallus thymallus
Conference:
XV European Congress of Ichthyology, Porto, Portugal, 7 Sep - 11 Sep, 2015.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Phylogeny, Systematics and Genetics
Citation:
Persat
H,
Mattersdorfer
K,
Charlat
S,
Schenekar
T and
Weiss
SJ
(2015). Genetic integrity of European grayling (Thymallus thymallus L. 1758) within the Vienne River drainage basin after five decades of stockings.
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
XV European Congress of Ichthyology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2015.03.00149
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Received:
23 Nov 2015;
Published Online:
27 Nov 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Henri Persat, Université Lyon Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, 69622, France, henri.persat@univ-lyon1.fr