Fine scale diversity in the lava: genetic and phenotypic diversity in small populations of Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A major goal in evolutionary biology is to understand the processes underlying phenotypic variation in nature. Commonly, studies have focused on large interconnected populations or populations found along strong environmental gradients. However, studies on small fragmented populations can give strong insight into evolutionary processes in relation to discrete ecological factors. Evolution in small populations is believed to be dominated by stochastic processes, but recent work shows that small populations can also display adaptive phenotypic variation, through for example plasticity and rapid adaptive evolution. Such evolution takes place even though there are strong signs of historical bottlenecks and genetic drift. Here we studied 24 small populations of the freshwater

SUBMITTER: Leblanc CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11017478 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature