The Pecos River, NM, in contrast to the Rio Grande, has maintained its native fish fauna relatively intact. Only one pelagic spawning species, the Rio Grande silvery minnow, has been extirpated. However, several species have been introduced to the Pecos in the past several decades including the Arkansas river shiner (Notropis girardi) and the Plains minnow (Hybognathus placitus). These introduced species share key life-history features with a number of the native species specifically they are members of a reproductive guild of fishes that spawn semi-buoyant eggs into the pelagic zone of rivers. We are conducting comparative population genetics to investigate the processes (including geologic history of the Rio Grande drainage basin) shape diversity in the Pecos River fish community which includes the small-bodied species including red shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis), Rio Grande shiner (Notropis jemezanus), Pecos bluntnose shiner (Notropis simus pecosensis) and speckled chub (Macryhybopis aestavalis).
The Pecos bluntnose shiner is a subspecific form of the bluntnose shiner (Chernoff et al. 1982). The only other subspecies, the Rio Grande bluntnose shiner (Notropis simus simus), is presumed extinct with the last collection made in 1964 (Bestgen and Platania 1990). In the past 50 years, abundance of Pecos bluntnose shiner has declined considerably following habitat changes caused by installation of dams and alteration of the natural flow regime (Platania 1995; Hoagstrom 2003; Hoagstom et al. 2008). Consequently, the Pecos bluntnose shiner was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1987 (U.S. Department of the Interior, Federal Register 1987). Pecos bluntnose shiner is now restricted to a 333 km stretch of the Pecos River from downstream of Sumner Reservoir to above Brantley Reservoir, New Mexico (Brooks et al. 1991; Platania 1995).
In a recent collaboration with the Stephen Davenport (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and Dr. Christopher Hoagstrom (Weber State University, Utah) we paired genetic monitoring data with demographic surveys to determine whether genetic effective size tracked known changes in fish density. This research was published in Molecular Ecology.
The Pecos bluntnose shiner is a subspecific form of the bluntnose shiner (Chernoff et al. 1982). The only other subspecies, the Rio Grande bluntnose shiner (Notropis simus simus), is presumed extinct with the last collection made in 1964 (Bestgen and Platania 1990). In the past 50 years, abundance of Pecos bluntnose shiner has declined considerably following habitat changes caused by installation of dams and alteration of the natural flow regime (Platania 1995; Hoagstrom 2003; Hoagstom et al. 2008). Consequently, the Pecos bluntnose shiner was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1987 (U.S. Department of the Interior, Federal Register 1987). Pecos bluntnose shiner is now restricted to a 333 km stretch of the Pecos River from downstream of Sumner Reservoir to above Brantley Reservoir, New Mexico (Brooks et al. 1991; Platania 1995).
In a recent collaboration with the Stephen Davenport (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and Dr. Christopher Hoagstrom (Weber State University, Utah) we paired genetic monitoring data with demographic surveys to determine whether genetic effective size tracked known changes in fish density. This research was published in Molecular Ecology.