Genetic population structure of broad whitefish, Coregonus nasus, from the Mackenzie River, Northwest Territories: implications for subsistence fishery management

Abstract

We assayed microsatellite DNA variation among 1013 broad whitefish, Coregonus nasus , from 36 localities within the lower Mackenzie River (Northwest Territories, Canada) to provide the first assessment of fine-scale population structuring of broad whitefish in this large system. Among sampling locations, averaged across all loci, the number of alleles ranged from 3.00 to 6.71 and heterozygosity averaged 0.54. Population subdivision was generally low, but significant (θ = 0.026, P < 0.05), although pairwise comparisons indicated that overall significance was heavily influenced by comparisons between anadromous and lacustrine groups. Bayesian-based STRUCTURE analysis suggested that there are two main genetic groups within our study area: anadromous and lacustrine broad whitefish. A mixture analysis indicated that all populations contribute to the lower Mackenzie River subsistence fishery, yet catches were dominated by Peel River fish, highlighting the importance of this tributary. Our data also supported the idea that there are several units of conservation among Mackenzie River system broad whitefish populations and that management strategies should be implemented accordingly.