Temporal Variability in Effective Size ( N e ) Identifies Potential Sources of Discrepancies Between Mark Recapture and Close Kin Mark Recapture Estimates of Population Abundance.

ABSTRACT: Although efforts to estimate effective population size, census size and their ratio in wild populations are expanding, few empirical studies investigate interannual changes in these parameters. Hence, we do not know how repeatable or representative many estimates may be. Answering this question requires studies of long-term population dynamics. Here we took advantage of a rich dataset of seven brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) populations, 5 consecutive years and 5400 individuals genotyped at 33 microsatellites to examine variation in estimates of effective and census size and in their ratio. We first estimated the annual effective number of breeders ( N̂ _b) using individuals aged 1+. We then adjusted these estimates using two life history traits, to obtain N̂badj2 and subsequ

SUBMITTER: Ruzzante DE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11887598 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature