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Number 52 (December 2010) Article 1 Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings Volume 1 Number 52 Number 52 (December 2010) Article 1 12-1-2010 Number 52 (December 2010) Southern Fishes Council Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/sfcproceedings Part of the Marine Biology Commons Recommended Citation Southern Fishes Council (2010) "Number 52 (December 2010)," Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings: No. 52. Available at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/sfcproceedings/vol1/iss52/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by Volunteer, Open Access, Library Journals (VOL Journals), published in partnership with The University of Tennessee (UT) University Libraries. This article has been accepted for inclusion in Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings by an authorized editor. For more information, please visit https://trace.tennessee.edu/sfcproceedings. Number 52 (December 2010) Abstract (December 2010) - Comparative Conservation Genetics of Two Endangered Darters, Percina rex and Percina jenkinsi By Anna L. George, David Neely, and Richard Mayden Invasion of Gulf Menhaden in the Alabama River By T. Heath Haley, R. Kyle Bolton, and Carol E. Johnston Southeastern Fishes Council State Reports Minutes, Business Meeting, 35th Annual Meeting, Southeastern Fishes Council 2009 Treasurer's Report for the Southeastern Fishes Council Keywords conservation, genetics, endangered, darters, fishes, percina rex, percina jenkinsi, gulf menhaden, alabama river This full issue is available in Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings: https://trace.tennessee.edu/sfcproceedings/ vol1/iss52/1 Number 52 December 2010 Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings Dedicated to the Conservation of Southeastern Fishes CONTENTS Comparative Conservation Genetics of Two Endangered Darters, Percina rex and Percina jenkinsi Anna L. George, David A. Neely, and Richard L. Mayden ................................................................................................. 1 Invasion of Gulf Menhaden in the Alabama River T. Heath Haley, R. Kyle Bolton, and Carol E. Johnston .................................................................................................... 13 Southeastern Fishes Council State Reports ...................................................................................................................................... 19 Minutes, Business Meeting, 35th Annual Meeting, Southeastern Fishes Council ....................................................................... 39 2009 Treasurer’s Report for the Southeastern Fishes Council ....................................................................................................... 43 Annual Dues Please check your mailing label. Opposite your name on the mailing label is the last year for which we have a record of dues paid (or “9999” for lifetime members). If you have not yet paid 2010 dues (or other dues in arrears), please send a check payable to Southeastern Fishes Council to Anna George, Tennessee Aquarium, 1 Broad St., Chattanooga, TN 37402, phone (423) 785-4171. Dues are $30.00 per year for regular members and $15.00 per year for students. If you are uncer - tain regarding your status, email Anna George at [email protected] 36th Annual Meeting, Southeastern Fishes Council The SFC met in Athens, GA on Thursday and Friday, the 11 th and 12 th of November, 2010. The meeting program and abstracts are posted on our website <www.sefishescouncil.org>. Student Award Winners Oral Presentations 1st Place: James H. Roberts, Virginia Tech. Extensive dispersal of Roanoke logperch inferred from genetic marker data (with Paul L. Angermeier and Eric M. Hallerman) 2nd Place: Andrea Fritts, University of Georgia. Development of a non-lethal approach for assessing stress in freshwater mussels (with James T. Peterson and Robert B. Bringolf) 3rd Place: Brook Fluker, University of Alabama. Genetic divergence and sympatric occurrence of the spring inhabiting coldwater darter ( Etheostoma ditrema ) and an undescribed stream inhabiting form ( E. sp. cf. ditrema ) (with Bernard R. Kuhajda and Phillip M. Harris) Poster Presentations 1st Place: Kerstin Edberg, St. Louis University. Genetic isolation as a result of dam construction: A look at the effects on two species of darters (with Philip Lienesch, Jeffrey Marcus, Robert Wood) 2nd Place: Jane Argentina, Virginia Tech. Genetic structure and diversity of variegate darters ( Etheostoma variatum ) in the Big Sandy River drainage (with Paul L. Angermeier, Eric M. Hallerman, and Joanne E. Printz) 3rd Place: Andrew Taylor, University of Georgia. Dispersal of non-native smallmouth bass in the Chattahoochee River (with Douglas L. Peterson) Comparative Conservation Genetics of Two Endangered Darters, Percina rex and Percina jenkinsi ANNA L. GEORGE 1,2* , DAVID A. NEELY 1, AND RICHARD L. MAYDEN 2 1Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, 1 Broad St., Chattanooga, TN 37402 USA; 2Department of Biology, St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO 63103 USA *Corresponding author: [email protected] ABSTRACT tats, the Ictaluridae and Percidae, have disproportionately higher percentages of jeopardized species than other Within the logperch group, a clade of 10 darter species southeastern fish families (Etnier and Starnes, 1991; from North America, two species are afforded federal pro - Etnier, 1997). tection. Percina rex is found in four major systems of the Within the family Percidae, darters are a clade of over Roanoke and Chowan river drainages, and Percina jenkin - 200 species of smaller-bodied fishes endemic to eastern si is restricted to less than 45 river kilometers of the North America (Song et al., 1998; Sloss et al., 2004). While Conasauga River. Two complete mitochondrial genes, the relationships within this group have been the subject NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 and cytochrome b, were of considerable debate (Near, 2002; Sloss et al., 2004; Lang sequenced to assess genetic diversity and conservation sta - and Mayden, 2007), one group consistently recovered is a tus of these two species. Levels of haplotype diversity were clade of logperches of the genus Percina , subgenus higher in P. rex (h = 0.919) than P. jenkinsi (h = 0.889), but Percina (Near, 2002). The 10 described species of logperch nucleotide diversity was higher in P. jenkinsi (p = 0.00485) are ideal for comparative conservation genetics studies than P. rex (p = 0.00367). Four haplogroups were recov - due to their rapid diversification rates (Near and Benard, ered in P. rex , and two distinct clades of haplotypes were 2004) and a broad disparity in rarity and abundance, from recovered from phylogenetic analysis of P. jenkinsi . These extremely common and broadly distributed taxa to criti - results are interpreted as reflecting differing causes of cally rare and localized endemics. The clade is character - decline for the two logperch species: recent geographic ized by an elongate and conical snout, a pigmentation pat - fragmentation with subsequent bottleneck events in P. rex tern consisting of tiger-stripe bars, and the behavioral versus a historical bottleneck of the restricted P. jenkinsi . synapomorphy of rock-flipping. Individuals use their coni - Within P. rex , a combination of natural isolation of subpop - cal snout to turn over rocks and gravel to prey upon hiding ulations in different tributary systems and recent anthropo - macroinvertebrates (Jenkins and Burkhead, 1994), a morphic fragmentation of the drainage is likely responsible behavior unique among darters. Because this feeding strat - for observed patterns of differentiation among the extant egy requires nonembedded gravel or cobble substrates, populations. Percina jenkinsi is at far greater risk of logperch are negatively affected by siltation (Rosenberger extinction, and both the species and its habitat are in need and Angermeier, 2003). The two basal most species in this of immediate conservation actions. group, Percina rex (Jordan and Evermann) and Percina jenkinsi Thompson, are the only two in the subgenus list - INTRODUCTION ed as Federally Endangered (Near, 2002; Near and Benard, 2004; George et al., 2006). Aquatic vertebrates are imperiled at rates twice as high Percina rex , the Roanoke Logperch, was described as terrestrial species (Richter et al., 1997). Drainages of the from the upper Roanoke River in 1889 (Jordan, 1889), but southeastern U.S. contain a particularly diverse and imper - not widely considered a valid species until the late 1960s iled ichthyofauna (Master, 1990; Burr and Mayden, 1992; (Jenkins and Burkhead, 1994). Until 2006, P. rex was only Lydeard and Mayden, 1995; Warren et al., 2000). Etnier known from four river systems in Virginia (Fig. 1; Jenkins (1997) identified the top three causes of imperilment of and Burkhead, 1994). Three of these systems, the this fauna to be nonpoint-source pollution, alteration of Roanoke, Pigg, and Smith rivers (Roanoke River water flow, and small native range. Fishes with habitat drainage), are separated from the fourth, Nottoway River preferences of medium-sized rivers are disproportionately (Chowan River drainage), by Albemarle Bay. This disjunct affected. While these habitats support only 20% of south - distribution has been invoked as evidence for the loss of eastern fish species, they contain 40% of the fishes consid - many populations across the Piedmont physiographic ered imperiled from all habitats (Etnier, 1997). Two fami - province over the past 150 years (Jenkins and Burkhead, lies of fishes exhibiting close associations with these habi - 1994). This hypothesis
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