Alternative mating tactics have important ecological and evolutionary implications and are determined by complex interactions between environmental and genetic factors. Here, we study the genetic effect and architecture of the variability in reproductive tactics among Atlantic salmon males which can either mature sexually early in life in freshwater or more commonly only after completing a migration at sea. We applied the latent environmental threshold model (LETM), which provides a conceptual framework linking individual status to a threshold controlling the decision to develop alternative traits, in an innovative experimental design using a semi-natural river which allowed for ecologically relevant phenotypic expression. Early male parr maturation rates varied greatly across families (10 to 93%) which translated into 90% [64–100%] of the phenotypic variation explained by genetic variation. Three significant QTLs were found for the maturation status, however only one collocated with a highly significant QTL explaining 20.6% of the variability of the maturation threshold located on chromosome 25 and encompassing a locus previously shown to be linked to sea age at maturity in anadromous Atlantic salmon. These results provide new empirical illustration of the relevance of the LETM for a better understanding of alternative mating tactics evolution in natural populations.

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RÉSUMÉL'hybridation interspécifique entre le saumon atlantique et la truite commune dans la nature a été mise en évidence dans différents pays d'Europe et au Canada. Une étude a été entreprise pour examiner son incidence dans des populations de salmonidés de certaines rivières des Asturies (nord de l'Espagne) et du sud-ouest de la France. Elle a été complétée par des expériences en milieu contrôlé pour déterminer les causes et les conditions de la disparition des barrières comportementales permettant le maintien de l'isolement reproducteur. Les hypothèses de travail étaient que l'hybridation pouvait être favorisée par le comportement de « sneaker » des tacons mâles précoces et par les repeuplements en juvéniles des deux espèces. Les résultats obtenus confirment que l'hybridation entre la truite et le saumon est un phénomène répandu, qui peut affecter localement des fractions significatives des populations (9,4 % sur la rivière Narcea dans les Asturies). Dans l'aire originelle de distribution des deux espèces, le croisement s'effectue dans le sens femelle saumon x mâle truite. Dans les conditions normales de sympatrie, les barrières d'isolement reproducteur pré-appariement paraissent solides en raison du comportement agressif du mâle conspécifique dominant qui parvient à écarter efficacement les mâles compétiteurs hétérospécifiques. En l'absence de mâle conspécifique, l'hybridation peut avoir lieu. Cependant, les femelles modifient leur comportement, ralentissent leur activité de frai et le succès reproducteur, particulièrement chez la truite, diminue. Par ailleurs, les hypothèses de travail ne sont pas vérifiées. Pour éviter l'hybridation, il est recommandé au gestionnaire de veiller à la qualité et à la quantité des zones de reproduction, de maintenir l'équilibre des populations de géniteurs et de limiter les repeuplements en sujets non autochtones. HYBRIDIZATION IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF SALMONIDS IN SOUTH-WEST EUROPE AND IN AN EXPERIMENTAL CHANNEL. ABSTRACTInterspecific hybridization between Atlantic salmon and brown trout has been found in different European countries and in Canada. A study was initiated to determine the incidence of hybrids in salmonid populations of some rivers in Asturias (North Spain) and Southwestern France. It was complemented by experiments in a controlled environment to examine the Article available at

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Egg-to-fry development and survival of brown trout Salmo trutta were compared in two rivers of the Pyrenean piedmont, the Nive d'Arn eguy, with few human activities, and the Nive des Aldudes, with many anthropogenic activities including 11 fish farms and two sewage treatment plants (STPs). Survival was estimated between spawning (early December) and emergence time (early March) by means of capsules, 7 cm 3 in volume, filled with green eggs then inserted into the gravel of artificial redds at spawning sites. In the Nive des Aldudes, three sets of conditions were studied: a fish farm near the springs, a fish farm and an STP in a village, and a series of fish farms and an STP in a village. In each situation, two artificial redds were created upstream and two others downstream from the fish farms. In the Nive d'Arn eguy, four sites were equipped: each of the two downstream sites with two artificial redds, and the two upstream sites with one redd. Substratum characteristics (proportion of fine particles) and the quality of surface and interstitial water (oxygen content, ammonia and nitrite nitrogen) were periodically measured. There was no redd substratum difference between sites upstream and downstream of fish farms. Survival to fry emergence was higher in the Nive d'Arn eguy (63Á5%) than in the Nive des Aldudes (47Á7%). In this latter river, the nitrogen released from the STPs was 0Á5% that from fish farms. Fish farming impaired survival close to fish farm effluents (31Á6%), as compared to survival upstream (63Á6%), and induced a development delay during the yolk-sac fry stage. These differences were mainly linked to a drop in the dissolved oxygen content in interstitial water induced by the nitrogen flow in surface and interstitial waters.