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

• Main Authors: Houde, Aimee Lee S, Fraser, Dylan J, O'Reilly, Patrick, Hutchings, Jeffrey A
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2011
• Subjects: Captive Populations; Salmo salar; Inbreeding; Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8710; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.8710

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 neighbouring 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 simultaneously test for local adaptation, inbreeding depression and outbreeding depression. We found little evidence of inbreeding depression after one generation of inbreeding and little evidence of either heterosis or ... : data_Houde_EA_2011length, weight, family assignment ...