Atlantic salmon colonization of the Russian Arctic coast: pioneers from North America

Abstract

Previous studies of the ESTD* isozyme locus in the Atlantic salmon show the *80 allele to be absent across the species' European range, with the exception of northern Russia, whereas the allele is nearly fixed in North American populations. The allele was found in samples from 15 out of 18 rivers on the Kola Peninsula and White sea coast and had frequencies that ranged from 0Á017 to 0Á363. Typing of fish in nine of these rivers for mtDNA variation in the ND1 gene region found variation characteristic of North American salmon in three Kola Peninsula populations and is the only part of Europe where such variants have been detected. The study area was completely glaciated during the late Pleistocene period and the restriction of the European distribution of these ESTD* and mtDNA variants to this area suggests that salmon that colonized the Russian Arctic coast rivers included fish of North American origin after the Pleistocene glacier had retreated. # 2005 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles

Microsatellites reveal clear genetic boundaries among Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) populations from the Barents and White seas, northwest Russia

“…The clear separation of the populations into northeastern Atlantic Ocean and western Barents Sea versus White and eastern Barents Sea populations implies that these regions were colonized from different refugia. Western immigration into the western Barents Sea has been suggested in earlier studies (e.g., Asplund et al 2004;Makhrov et al 2005;Tonteri et al 2005) and is supported by the above. This is further corroborated by allele frequencies at locus Ssa197 in which large alleles (293-329 bp) were found among 9 of the 11 populations forming the Atlantic Ocean and western Barents Sea group but not among populations farther to the east (supplementary Appendix S2).…”

“…Hence, Atlantic salmon stocks of northwest Russia form an important source of biodiversity for the entire European region and are of immense economic and social importance for the local people in the form of fishing tourism. Currently, however, knowledge of the population genetic structure of Atlantic salmon populations from these regions is based primarily on a mtDNA study (Asplund et al 2004) as well as several studies using nuclear markers, which included only a handful of populations from this region (e.g., Kazakov and Titov 1991;Makhrov et al 2005;Tonteri et al 2005). It would therefore be important to conduct a more detailed study of population genetic structure based on nuclear markers to provide information that could be used in designing management plans and to serve as a baseline to assign individuals caught in offshore fisheries to their populations of origin.…”

“…The postglacial history of northwest Russian Atlantic salmon has been studied previously and different scenarios about recolonization have been suggested. Makhrov et al (2005) proposed that the Barents Sea was colonized from both the eastern and western Atlantic Ocean and that the White Sea Basin was colonized by salmon from the Baltic Sea Basin in addition to immigrants from the Atlantic Ocean. A Baltic influence in the area was also suggested by Kazakov and Titov (1991).…”

“…Several studies have assessed allozyme variation in either White Sea or Kola Peninsula Atlantic salmon populations in more detail (Kazakov and Titov 1991;Makhrov et al 2005). However, neither study covered the entire northwest Russian region nor identified any clear structuring among the analyzed populations, possibly owing to the lower level of variability observed at allozyme loci and the low number of polymorphic loci assessed (one to three polymorphic loci per study).…”

Refugia of marine fish in the northeast Atlantic during the last glacial maximum: concordant assessment from archaeozoology and palaeotemperature reconstructions

“…The unusual genetic structure in the Baltic Sea may have resulted from population isolation during the complex marine transgression history resulting from the interplay of sea level changes and the isostatic rebound in the early Quaternary (Lepiksaar, 2001, p. 40). However, it has also been used to infer recolonization from possible glacial refugia in the southern North Sea or beyond the eastern edge of the Fennoscandian ice sheet (e.g., Consuegra et al, 2002;Langefors, 2005;King et al, 2007; but see also Makhrov et al, 2005). A westward recolonization pathway into the Baltic Sea from the White Sea after the LGM was previously perceived as unlikely.…”