Determining the scale of biologically important local adaptation in Atlantic salmon using a common garden experimental approach

Ciar O’Toole

2nd Year PhD student, BEES.

Supervisors: Dr P. McGinnity,

Professor T. Cross.

Outline

• Background to project

• Experimental design

• Extreme event July 2009

• Some preliminary results

• Concluding remarks

Question?

• Is this observed qualitative variation important from a quantitative point of view, i.e. locally adaptative?

• At what scale does it operate?

• Theoretical population models suggest L.A. unlikely at small geographical scales - Adkison (1995) Can.J.F.Aquat. Sci.

• Previous empirical study suggests it may exist at very small geographical scales– McGinnity et al. (2004) J. Fish Biol.

Fitness variation between

neighbouring populations

McGinnity et al. (2004) J. Fish Biol

Experimental set-up

• Collection of broodstock December 2008

• Stripping of fish and creation of families:– Owenmore ♀ x Owenmore ♂– Burrishoole ♀ x Burrishoole ♂– Burrishoole ♀ x Owenmore ♂– Owenmore ♀ x Burrishoole ♂

• 4 groups of 13 families

Experimental set-up

Experimental set-up

Site Location

Monitoring-Rough River trap

• Downstream-daily: – Salmon fry

(3068 collected 1st year)– Salmon parr & Brown trout

• Length• Weight• Genetic sample

Genetic analysis

• Parentage analysis – broodstock

• Microsatellites – 10 loci– 2210, 2216, 171, 306, 197, SSOSL85,

170, D71, mhc 1, mhc 2.

• PAPA software for parentage assignment– Duchesne et al. (2002)

female

male

1 2

parents offspring

Planned work using genetic based parentage id

• Compare at group & family level:– survival to end of 1st summer and at smolt stage– performance in terms of size at age & condition– dispersal/migration as measured in fish to the trap– propensity for mature male parr

• Estimate lifetime fitness– release of hatchery fish as smolts, egg to egg survival

• Look at QTL’s & related contribution to performance e.g…… – immune response genes (MHC I & II)– temperature control of metabolism (MEP-2*)– plethora of emerging SNPs

female

male

1 2

parents offspring

Rough River flood 2nd July 2009

Pro

port

ion

of f

ish

Length (cm)

Weight (g)Le

ngth

(cm

)W

eigh

t (g

)

Rough River flood 2nd July 2009

1,081 2,543

Dispersal

Summary

• Expectation - evidence of additive contribution to fitness (based on hybrids - should be intermediate for range of traits) would be good indication local adaptation

• Early days - (approx 4,500 fry and parr from trap/ electrofishing/storm/smolts)

• Some hints for adaptation from previous work:– Climate – winter temperature (McGinnity et al. 2009, P.R.S.B)

– Pathogenic load – innate resistance local pop (deEyto et al. 2007, P.R.S.B)

– Optimising habitat use - dispersal (McGinnity et al. 2004, J. Fish. Biol.)

Management context

• If local adaptation is occurring on such small spatial scales:Consequences for:

• Stocking• Importance of

escapes• Biodiversity

management of the species

This Beaufort Marine Research Award is carried out under the Sea Change Strategy and the Strategy for Science Technology and Innovation (2006-2013), with the support of the Marine Institute, funded under the Marine Research Sub-Programme of the National Development Plan 2007–2013.

Beaufort Marine Research Award in Fish Population Genetics

Acknowledgements:

Deirdre Cotter, Sarah McEvoy, Russell Poole, Ken Whelan, Sarah Healy, Jamie Coughlan, Jens Carlsson, Eileen Dillane, Mary Cross and

the staff of the Marine Institute, Newport, Co. Mayo.