University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2018 Evolutionary patterns of alternative life histories in fishes: assessing marine-freshwater and aquatic-terrestrial movement Joel Benjamin Corush University of Tennessee, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Corush, Joel Benjamin, "Evolutionary patterns of alternative life histories in fishes: assessing marine- freshwater and aquatic-terrestrial movement. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2018. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/5287 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Joel Benjamin Corush entitled "Evolutionary patterns of alternative life histories in fishes: assessing marine-freshwater and aquatic- terrestrial movement." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Benjamin M. Fitzpatrick, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Graciela Cabana, Benjamin Keck, Daniel Simberloff Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Evolutionary patterns of alternative life histories in fishes: assessing marine-freshwater and aquatic-terrestrial movement A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Joel Benjamin Corush December 2018 Copyright © 2018 by Joel Benjamin Corush All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION To my friends, family and colleagues. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank my advisor, Benjamin Fitzpatrick, who allowed me the freedom to peruse the questions that I was interested in and helped me to develop my own research program. I would also like to thank my committee, Graciela Cabana, Ben Keck and Dan Simberloff. You all have made me become a better scientist by helping me think critically about the questions I ask, the methods I use, and how I interpret data. I would not have been able to conduct fieldwork without the generous help of many people who spent their time, effort and money to help me with logistics of field work, but also provided a warm and welcoming environment. In Guam, Brent Tibbatts from Guam Department of Agriculture, Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources, as well as Drs. Daniel Lindstrom, Kate Moots and Curt Fiedler from University of Guam. In Taiwan, Dr. Jen-Chieh Shiao and the members of his lab: Dr. Ni-Na Chang, Mr. Jyun Liao, Mr. Pin- Ren Fang, 黃文謙, 袁瀠晴, 鄭力綺 and 呂翰駮 from National Taiwan University. In China, Dr. Jie Zhang and Mr. Feng Lin, from the Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In Japan Dr. Zdenek Lajbner from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. Also Yukitoshi Katayama (片山侑駿) and Dr. Atsushi Ishimatsu students, Mai Van Hieu and Tran Xuan Loi who provided samples from locations that I was unable to go to. Molecular work would not have gone so smoothly without the tremendous assistance from Travis C Glenn, Natalia J Bayona-Vasquez and Troy J Kieran at University of Georga. The faculty, staff and students of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. Evin Carter, Todd Pierson, Zach Marion, Orlando Schwery, Jeremy Beaulieu, Brian O’Meara, James Fordyce, Monica Papes, Darrin Hulsey, Mike Harvey and Elizabeth Wolfe for all their help with different aspect of my research. And Jeremiah Henning, Courtney Gorman, Angela Chuang, Sharon Munoz, Sam Borstein, Cedric Landerer, Cassie Dresser-Briggs, Christopher Peterson, Diane Le Bouille, Lisa Cantwell, Melquisedec Gamba-Rios, Tyson Paulson, Jonathan Dickey, Shelby Scott and Hailee Korotkin for all that I learned from our discussions, seminars as well as their general support during my Ph.D. Thank you to the EEB office staff who helped organize my funding, travel and general logistics of graduate school: Marva Anderson, Lisa Boling, Karin Grindall and Janice Harper. And lastly, to my family who has supported and encouraged me over the years. Regina and Chuck Corush, Jenna Corush, and Steve, Mara, Sophia, Liam and Juliet Corush, thank you. I would also like to acknowledge my funding sources: UTK-Ecology and Evolutionary biology department research funds, UTK Chancellors fund, UTK McClure scholarship, iv Sigma-Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research, and The National Science Foundation (awards #1414902 and #1614100). v ABSTRACT Transitions between habitats driven by variation in physiological requirements at different stages of ontogeny have a wide range of effects on individuals, populations, and species as a whole. Where and when individuals can reproduce, how far they can disperse, and their physical ability to withstand particular environments affect gene flow and population size, which in turn may affect the potential for speciation and extinction. Explaining how individual-level behavior can alter diversification of species is a vast and challenging endeavor evolutionary biologists face. For my dissertation I address diadromous and amphibious behaviors in fishes. Diadromous fishes migrate between marine and freshwater systems and amphibious fishes move between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Both behaviors restrict individuals' movements and are thought to be important in population and species level patterns. First, I use phylogenetic comparative methods in order to test the hypothesis that diadromy is an intermediate state between completely marine and freshwater life styles. I find that while in some cases diadromy seems to act as an evolutionary intermediate, it is also a state where lineages diversify before returning back to their ancestral environment. This suggests that diadromy is an important behavior in the diversification of some groups of fishes. Second, I use comparative population genetics to see if the high diversification rates found in diadromous fishes is associated with variation in population differentiation and genetic diversity. I find that there is no particular association with migratory life history and population structure in fishes. Migration life history does not predict levels of differentiation between populations nor genetic diversity within populations. Finally, I use population genetic tools to see if the terrestrial restrictions of amphibious behavior affect population structure. Assessing a mudskipper from East Asia, Periophthalmus modestus, I find that movement and connectivity of populations is driven by connectivity of land. Large, diverse continental island populations are likely the result of vicariance and small, less diverse oceanic island populations are likely the result of rare colonization events. These findings show that habitat restrictions are important in shaping patterns of biodiversity in fishes. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 References ................................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER I THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF DIADROMY AS A TRANSITIONAL STATE BETWEEN MARINE AND FRESHWATER IN FISHES... 5 Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 7 Methods .................................................................................................................... 10 Results ...................................................................................................................... 12 Discussion ................................................................................................................. 13 Conclussion ............................................................................................................... 18 References ................................................................................................................. 18 Appendix A ............................................................................................................... 24 Appendix B ............................................................................................................... 30 Appendix C ............................................................................................................... 34 CHAPTER II GENETIC DIVERSITY AND POPULATION STRUCTURE OF MARINE, CATADROMOUS, ANADROMOUS, AMPHIDROMOUS AND FRESHWATER FISHES……………………………………………………………………………..........35 Abstract ..................................................................................................................... 36 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 37 Methods ...................................................................................................................