Data from: Population genetics of the American eel (Anguilla rostrata): FST = 0 and NAO effects on demographic fluctuations of a panmictic species

• Main Authors: Côté, Caroline L., Castonguay, Martin, Gagnaire, Pierre-Alexandre, Bourret, Vincent, Verreault, Guy, Bernatchez, Louis
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2012
• Subjects: Mesozoic; Fisheries Management; Anguilla rostrata; Conservation Biology; Ecological Genetics; Wildlife Management; Population Genetics - Empirical; Life sciences; medicine and health care; Conservation Genetics; Florida 30.02N -81.33W Guana River Dam; Georgia 31.31N -81.47W Mornings-AR; South Carolina 32.93N -80.01W Cooper River; North Carolina 34.77N -76.81W Black Creek; Virginia 37.22N -76.49W Wormley Creek York; Delaware 38.59N -75.29W Millsboro Pond Spillway; New Jersey 39.56N -74.58W Patcong Creak Linwood; Pennsylvania 40.05N -74.98W Crum Creek; Connecticut 41.30N -72.40W Tyler River; Massachusetts 41.68N -70.92W Parker River; New Hampshire 42.93N -70.86W Tayler River; Nova Scotia 44.59N -64.17W Mira River; Newfoundland 47.84N -59.26W Codroy River; Québec 48.78N -67.69W Grande Rivière Blanche; Prince Edward Island 46.43N -63.24W Rustico Bay; Ontario 45.01N -74.79W Moses-Saunders Dam; Québec 45.31N -73.90W Beauharnois Dam; Québec 45.44N -73.26W Chambly Dam; Québec 48.28N -68.95W Rivière du Sud-Ouest; Québec 49.52N -67.28W Rivière de la Petite Trinité; Québec 48.82N -64.83W Rivière Saint-Jean; Maine 43.84N -69.65W West Harbor Pond; New Brunswick 47.52N -64.91W Tracadie River; New Brunswick 47.09N -65.22W Miramichi Estuary; New Brunswick 45.87N -66.15W Grand-Lake; Nova Scotia 44.36N -64.46W La Have River; Nova Scotia 45.84N -60.80W Bras d’Or Lake; Nova Scotia 46.43N -61.10W Margaree Harbour; Newfoundland 47.60N -53.26W Roberts Bay; envir; geo; Newfoundland; Blanche; Moses; Mira; Saunders; Creak; Rivière du Sud; Roberts Bay; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation; Prince Edward Island
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.39jb0

We performed population genetic analyses on the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) with three main objectives. First, we conducted the most comprehensive analysis of neutral genetic population structure to date in order to revisit the null hypothesis of panmixia in this species. Second, we used this data to provide the first estimates of contemporary effective population size (Ne) and to document temporal variation in effective number of breeders (Nb) in American eel. Third, we tested for statistical associations between temporal variation in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index, the effective number of breeders and two indices of recruit abundance. A total of 2142 eels from 32 sampling locations were genotyped with 18 microsatellite loci. All measures of differentiation were essentially zero, and no evidence for significant spatial or temporal genetic differentiation was found. The panmixia hypothesis should thus be accepted for this species. Nb estimates varied by a factor of 23 among 12 cohorts, from 473 to 10 999. The effective population size Ne was estimated to be around 22 382. This study also showed that genetically based demographic indices, namely Nb and allelic richness (Ar), can be used as surrogates for the abundance of breeders and recruits, which were both shown to be positively influenced by variation during high (positive) NAO phases. Thus, long-term genetic monitoring of American glass eels at several sites along the North American Atlantic coast would represent a powerful and efficient complement to census monitoring to track demographic fluctuations and better understand their causes. genotype_age_location_Dryad2012American glass eels recruitment begins in Florida around December and progresses northward to Newfoundland–Labrador until June/July (Helfman et al. 1987). The first waves of glass eels at each location were sampled in 2008 following this latitudinal trend at 17 sites evenly distributed along eastern North America up to the St. Lawrence estuary. For each location, 50 individuals ...