Disparate past demographic histories of three small Scombridae

The bullet tuna Auxis rochei, the little tunny Euthynnus alletteratus, and the Atlantic Chub mackerel Scomber colias are three small Scombridae with similar life-history traits such as overlapping epipelagic distribution and a shared spawning area in Tunisian waters. In this study, we compared the p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrobiologia 2015-10, Vol.758 (1), p.19
Main Authors: Allaya, Hassen, Faleh, Abderraouf Ben, Hattour, Abdallah, Trabelsi, Monia, Viñas, Jordi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Mitochondrial DNA
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The bullet tuna Auxis rochei, the little tunny Euthynnus alletteratus, and the Atlantic Chub mackerel Scomber colias are three small Scombridae with similar life-history traits such as overlapping epipelagic distribution and a shared spawning area in Tunisian waters. In this study, we compared the phylogeography and demographic histories of these species by analyzing the sequence variability of the mitochondrial DNA control region. None of the species showed genetic differentiation in their Tunisian distribution; however, we inferred three completely different population histories. E. alletteratus showed a demographic history of a very recent bottleneck followed by sudden population expansion probably consequence of a population decline in the Last Glacial Maximum. S. colias also presented a population expansion after collapse but in this case about ten-fold older than that observed in E. alletteratus. Finally, A. rochei presented a history of demographic stability. These contrasting population histories were discussed based on their possible differences in life-history traits, but the hypothesis of stochastic factors affecting the demography of these species was also invoked.
ISSN:0018-8158
1573-5117
DOI:10.1007/s10750-015-2261-x