Genetic consequences of conservation management of Anacapa Island deer mice and Illinois shiners

Conservation genetics of an insular small mammal, Anacapa deer mice ( Peromyscus maniculatus anacapae), and two freshwater fish species; Notropis heterodon and Notropis heterolepis were studied and recommendations were made to conservation managers based on the genetic results.;A total of 1400 deer mice samples from East. Middle and West Anacapa populations were studied. These populations have recently been subject to a conservation management program involving reintroduction. In this study the genetic outcomes of the conservation program were evaluated using 10 microsatellite markers and mitochondrial DNA COII sequences. Results of Anacapa mice study revealed that founders of three Anacapa islets were genetically differentiated from each other. After the management, level of differentiation between East-Middle and East-West were reduced due to translocation of mice from Middle and West populations to East. The genetic variability levels before and after the management were similar except in East Anacapa population where mice translocations increased the genetic variability levels. Moreover, fluctuations in allele frequencies and loss of alleles and were observed. This may be an indication of management related genetic bottleneck. Additionally, previously observed haplotypes were not detected in founder populations indicating a past population bottleneck unrelated to the conservation management program. Extensive bottleneck and effective population size analyses of founder and post-reintroduction populations showed some evidence for a bottleneck that may have resulted from the recent conservation management. Overall, these results showed that Anacapa recovery project has been successful in establishing genetically variable deer mice populations.;The genetic results of the Notropis study showed that two species are genetically quite distinct from each other. The comparisons of source and sanctuary populations for both species showed that source populations had higher genetic variability levels than sanctuary populations. Hence, for future reintroductions source populations are better candidates as founders.;Overall, results of these two studies have important implications for conservation of many insular and freshwater species since there are a growing number of species in need of conservation measures that will involve reintroductions and translocations.