Of Paleo-Genes and Perch: What if an "Alien" Is Actually a Native?: e0119071

Documenting whether a biotic taxon is native or alien to an ecosystem has theoretical value for ecological and evolutionary studies, and has practical value because it can potentially identify a taxon as a desirable component of an ecosystem or target it for removal. In some cases, however, such bac...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-03, Vol.10 (3)
Main Authors: Stager, J Curt, Sporn, Lee Ann, Johnson, Melanie, Regalado, Sean
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Perca flavescens
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Documenting whether a biotic taxon is native or alien to an ecosystem has theoretical value for ecological and evolutionary studies, and has practical value because it can potentially identify a taxon as a desirable component of an ecosystem or target it for removal. In some cases, however, such background information is inadequate or unavailable. Here we use paleo-DNA to re-evaluate the historical status of yellow perch in the 6 million acre Adirondack State Park of northern New York. Yellow perch DNA in a 2200-year sediment record reveals a long-term native status for these supposedly alien fish and challenges assumptions that they necessarily exclude native trout from upland lakes. Similar approaches could be applied to other species with uncertain historical distributions and could help to identify unrecognized pockets of biodiversity.
ISSN:1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0119071