Tracking genetic diversity in a large-scale oyster restoration program: effects of hatchery propagation and initial characterization of diversity on restored vs. wild reefs.

ABSTRACT: The release of hatchery-propagated fish and shellfish is occurring on a global scale, but the genetic impacts of these practices are often not fully understood and rarely monitored. Slow recovery of depleted eastern oyster populations in the Chesapeake Bay, USA has prompted a hatchery-based restoration program focused in the Choptank River, Maryland consisting of the mass release of hatchery-produced juveniles from local, wild broodstock. To evaluate potential genetic effects of this program, we (1) examined changes in genetic diversity (allelic richness, heterozygosity) and the effective number of breeders (N_b) over the hatchery production cycle with microsatellite-based parentage of natural, mass- and controlled-spawned cohorts, and (2) compared genetic diversity and effective

SUBMITTER: Hornick KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6781163 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature