© 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. 305 A modified stepping-stone model of population structure in red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus (Sciaenidae), from the northern Gulf of Mexico

• Main Authors: J. R. Gold, C. P. Burridge, T. F. Turner
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Key words; gene flow; marine fishes; population structure; red drum; Red drum; Sciaenops ocellatus
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.465.456; http://scsagr.scsfri.ac.cn/upimg/200854155446.pdf

Genetic studies of population or ‘stock ’ structure in exploited marine fishes typically are designed to determine whether geographic boundaries useful for conservation and management planning are identifiable. Implicit in many such studies is the notion that subpopulations or stocks, if they exist, have fixed territories with little or no gene exchange between them. Herein, we review our long-term genetic studies of red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), an estuarine-dependent sciaenid fish in the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic Ocean. Significant differences in frequencies of mitochondrial DNA haplotypes and of alleles at nuclear-encoded microsatellites occur among red drum sampled across the northern Gulf of Mexico. The spatial distribution of the genetic variation, however, follows a pattern of isolation-by-distance consistent with the hypothesis that gene flow occurs among subpopu-lations and is an inverse (and continuous) function of geographic distance. However, successful reproduction and recruitment of red drum depend on estuarine habitats that have geographically discrete boundaries. We hypothesize that population structure in red drum follows a modified one-dimensional, linear stepping-stone model where gene exchange occurs primarily (but not exclusively) between adjacent bays and estuaries distributed linearly along the coastline. Gene flow does occur among estuaries that are not adjacent but probabilities of gene exchange decrease as a function of geographic distance. Implications of our hypothesis are discussed in terms of inferences