Relative risks of inbreeding and outbreeding depression in the wild in endangered salmon.

ABSTRACT: Conservation biologists routinely face the dilemma of keeping small, fragmented populations isolated, wherein inbreeding depression may ensue, or mixing such populations, which may exacerbate population declines via outbreeding depression. The joint evaluation of inbreeding and outbreeding risks in the wild cannot be readily conducted in endangered species, so a suggested 'safe' strategy is to mix ecologically and genetically similar populations. To evaluate this strategy, we carried out a reciprocal transplant experiment involving three neighboring populations of endangered Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) now bred in captivity and maintained in captive and wild environments. Pure, inbred, and outbred (first and second generation) cross types were released and recaptured in the wild to simul

SUBMITTER: Houde AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3352539 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature