Aim We evaluate the phylogenetic relationships and taxonomic validity of Atlantic species of Labrisomus , identifying the lineages currently assigned to L. nuchipinnis , and assessing the role of biogeographic barriers in shaping the evolutionary history and geographic distribution of the genus. Location Atlantic Ocean. Taxon Labrisomus . Methods We assembled an extensive mitochondrial and nuclear DNA dataset of Atlantic speci...

Walleye is an important sportfish across eastern North America, is commercially fished in the Laurentian Great Lakes region, and has been introduced outside its native range. Thirty-eight Walleye populations within six watersheds across the Eastern Highlands and other portions of the native range were screened at eight microsatellite DNA loci to better understand evolutionary history and to inform fishery management and conser...

Biological invasions comprise accidental evolutionary experiments, whose genetic compositions underlie relative success, spread and persistence in new habitats. However, little is known about whether, or how, their population genetic patterns change temporally and/or spatially across the invasion's history. Theory predicts that most would undergo founder effect, exhibit low genetic divergence across the new range and gain vari...

Comparisons of a species' genetic diversity and divergence patterns across large connected populations vs. isolated relict areas provide important data for understanding potential response to global warming, habitat alterations and other perturbations. Aquatic taxa offer ideal case studies for interpreting these patterns, because their dispersal and gene flow often are constrained through narrow connectivity channels that have...

The Eurasian round goby Neogobius melanostomus ( Apollonia melanostoma ) invaded the North American Great Lakes in 1990 through ballast water, spread rapidly, and now is widely distributed and moving through adjacent tributaries. We analyse its genetic diversity and divergence patterns among 25 North American ( N = 744) and 22 Eurasian ( N = 414) locations using mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b gene sequences and seven nuclear m...

During the past two decades, the round goby Apollonia melanostoma (= Neogobius melanostomus ) has expanded its range via shipping transport and canals, extending north and west from the Ponto‐Caspian region of Eurasia and to the North American Great Lakes. Exotic populations of the round goby have been very successful in the Baltic Sea and the Great Lakes regions, exerting significant ecological changes. Our study evaluates th...

Analysis of population genetic relationships reveals the signatures of current processes such as spawning behaviour and migration, as well as those of historical events including vicariance and climate change. This study examines these signatures through testing broad‐ to fine‐scale genetic patterns among smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu spawning populations across their native Great Lakes range and outgroup areas, with fi...

Mitochondrial (mt) DNA control region sequences were used to test the genetic and phylogeographic structure of walleye Stizostedion vitreum populations at different geographical scales: among spawning sites, lake basins, lakes, and putative glacial refugia in the Great Lakes region. Sequencing 199 walleye revealed nucleotide substitutions and tandemly repeated sequences that varied in copy number, as well as in sequence compos...