Estimates of Effective Number of Breeders Identify Drivers of Decline in Mid-Atlantic Brook Trout Populations.

ABSTRACT: Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) populations have experienced marked declines throughout their native range and are presently threatened due to isolation in small habitat fragments, land use changes, and climate change. The existence of numerous, spatially distinct populations poses substantial challenges for monitoring population status (e.g., abundance, recruitment, or occupancy). Genetic monitoring with estimates of effective number of breeders (N _b) provides a potentially powerful metric to complement existing population monitoring, assessment, and prioritization. We estimated N _b for 71 Brook Trout habitat units in mid-Atlantic region of the United States and obtained a mean N _b of 73.2 (range 6.90-493). Our modeling appr

SUBMITTER: Robinson ZL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11442137 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature