<ol type="1"> <li>The use of translocations to establish new or ‘refuge’ populations for species with high conservation value is controversial but widely used in conservation management. One of the risks of this approach is that an establishing population does not adequately capture the genetic diversity of the donor gene pool. This effect, rarely examined, is tested here.</li> <li>In this study ...

The origin of species is a central topic in biology. Ecological speciation might be a driver in adaptive radiation, providing a framework for understanding mechanisms, level, and rate of diversification. The Arctic charr <i>Salvelinus alpinus</i> L. is a polymorphic species with huge morphological and life‐history diversity in Holarctic water systems. We studied adaptive radiation of Arctic charr ...

Adaptive radiation is the diversification of species to different ecological niches and has repeatedly occurred in different salmonid fish of postglacial lakes. In Lake Tinnsjøen, one of the largest and deepest lakes in Norway, the salmonid fish, Arctic charr (<i>Salvelinus alpinus</i> (L.)), has likely radiated within 9,700 years after deglaciation into ecologically and genetically segregated ...

Pleistocene glaciations dramatically affected species distribution in regions that were impacted by ice cover and subsequent postglacial range expansion impacted contemporary biodiversity in complex ways. The European whitefish, Coregonus lavaretus, is a widely distributed salmonid fish species on mainland Europe, but in Britain it has only seven native populations, all of which are found on the ...

Adaptive radiation is the evolution of ecological and phenotypical diversity. It arises via ecological opportunity that promotes the exploration of underutilized or novel niches mediating specialization and reproductive isolation. The assumed precondition for rapid local adaptation is diversifying natural selection, but random genetic drift could also be a major driver of this process. We used 27 ...

Information about the dietary composition of a species is crucial to understanding their position and role in the food web. Increasingly, molecular approaches such as DNA metabarcoding are used in studying trophic relationships, not least because they may alleviate problems such as low taxonomic resolution or underestimation of digestible taxa in the diet. Here, we used DNA metabarcoding with universal ...

Detailed information of trophic interactions among consumer–resources in food webs is usually limited due to the lack of accurate identification of eaten food resources. The use of DNA-metabarcoding has been proven useful for molecular identification of the numerous taxa present in stomach contents. Here, we characterize the diet and trophic behavior of four sea urchin species inhabiting shallow ...

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is a relatively new monitoring tool featuring in an increasing number of applications such as the facilitation of the accurate and cost effective detection of species in environmental samples. eDNA monitoring is likely to have a major impact on the ability of salmonid aquaculture industry producers and their regulators to detect the presence and abundance of ...

Aquaculture impacts on marine benthic ecosystems are widely recognized and monitored. However, little is known about the community changes occurring in the water masses surrounding aquaculture sites. In the present study, we studied the eukaryotic communities inside and outside salmonid aquaculture cages through time to assess the community changes in the neighbouring waters of the farm. Water ...

Caligid sea lice represent a significant threat to salmonid aquaculture worldwide. Population genetic analyses have consistently shown minimal population genetic structure in North Atlantic <i>Lepeophtheirus salmonis</i>, frustrating efforts to track louse populations and improve targeted control measures. The aim of this study was to test the power of reduced representation library sequencing ...