Populations of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in southern British Columbia were assayed for genetic variation at 26 enzyme loci. The mean heterozygosity was only 0.25 ± 0.06%. Previously studied wild Oregon cohos had a mean heterozygosity of 1.36 ± 0.37% compared with 0.30 ± 0.09% in Lower Coastal Mainland and 0.13 ± 0.08% in Upper Fraser River fish for the same enzyme loci. A plausible explanation for the very low mean heterozygosity is that British Columbia coho salmon went through an extreme population bottleneck during or after the last ice age. Lower Coastal Mainland salmon are significantly different from the fish of Vancouver Island and can be easily distinguished from Oregon and Capilano Hatchery (Coastal Mainland, B.C.) fish, it should be feasible to determine the relative proportions of different stocks in large oceanic coho salmon samples. The maximum likelihood estimate of the migration rate between spawning populations is 5.8 ± 1.2 breeding adults per generation. This is enough to prevent adaptation to local habitats by small populations of fewer than 100 breeding adults, but it is not high enough to impede selection in large populations of 1000 or more breeding adults.
Collections from 31 populations of A. barbata from diverse habitats in Israel were assayed electrophoretically for seven enzyme systems. Phenotype frequencies were scored in nine enzyme zones, probably representing 27 loci, to determine isozyme variability within and among populations. Many different isozyme phenotypes were found in all of the populations; also the array of isozyme phenotypes found in each population differed distinctly from that found in each other population. Overlays of phenotypic frequencies on map locations showed that isozyme variability is distributed in mosaic patterns not related to geographical distance. Principal-component and multiple-regression analyses revealed that temperature and moisture-related variables are significantly correlated with particular isozyme phenotypes. Further, the mosaic patterns of isozyme variation were found to correspond closely to mosaic patterns of the habitat. This structuring of the genetic variability into multilocus combinations was attributed to the combined effects of directional and diversifying selection. Comparisons of patterns and extent of genetic variation in Israel and California led to the conclusion that the evolution of 'ecotypes,' each adapted to a specific habitat and marked by a particular set of enzyme alleles, has proceeded further in Israel, where A. barbata is endemic, than in California, where it is a recent introduction.
Thirty-four relatively undisturbed stands of vegetation in shallow marsh, nonto slightly saline wetlands in south-central Saskatchewan were examined with respect to environmental influence on species distribution. Four environmental gradients account for the bulk of variation in the vegetation. They are, in decreasing order of importance, disturbance (despite the fact that all stands chosen are relatively undisturbed), available nutrients, water regime, and salinity. The greatest variation in the data from these stands as a whole is in their salinity, but this is not reflected in the vegetation. The correlation between water regime and available nutrients is negative. A number of other factors show minor correlations with the vegetation and with each other. The method of application of principal components analysis used in this study was a valuable aid in the interpretation of the data. It provides estimates of the proportions of (1) the variance associated with each principal component and (2) the total variation in the vegetation data that can be assigned to variation in the environmental measurements.
Data from a survey of lowland, mainly peatland, vegetation were subjected to environmental ordination based on measurements of water level and water conductivity, and to vegetational ordination derived from principal component analysis (P.C.A.). Analyzed were the total set of the data ("all types"), half sets ("nonwoody" and "woody types") and quarter sets (stands of "marshes", "meadows", "shrub fens", and "other woody types"); the number of distinct physiognomic groups in a set of data, and presumably the amount of contained heterogeneity, decreased at each segmentation.The effectiveness of the ordination models was tested by correlating measured distances in two-dimensional ordination models with 2W/(A + B) indices of vegetational similarity for randomly selected pairs of types or stands. As the physiognomic complexity decreased, the effectiveness of the P.C.A. vegetational ordination increased whereas that of the environmental ordination decreased. The environmental ordination seemed most appropriate to the data encompassing high complexity (total data set), while the P.C.A. vegetational ordination seemed most appropriate to data with low complexity (quarter sets of the data).
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