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Genetic diversity among walleye (Sander vitreus) populations in inland Ontario: Relationships with life history traits.

This thesis focuses on the relationships between genetic diversity, environmental parameters, and fitness in walleye {Sander vitreus: Percidae), as well as the influences of natural and anthropogenic factors on walleye population structure across the province of Ontario. 11 selectively neutral microsatellite DNA loci were used to characterize the genetic diversity and population structure of 46 populations of walleye. Genetic diversity estimates (observed heterozygosity (Ho), mean square allelic distance (d^), and Wright’s inbreeding coefficient (Fis)) revealed high levels of genetic diversity. The relationships observed between lake parameters and population genetic diversity revealed positive relationships between lake surface area, growing degree days, number of species, and hatchery supplementation versus H q and d .̂ The only significant positive correlation observed between life history traits and genetic diversity was early growth rate versus H q for male and female walleye. The relationship between Fis and male early growth rate was significant (p < 0 .0 1 ) and marginally non significant for females (p= 0.06), and both relationships had negative slopes, indicative of inbreeding effects. No significant relationships were observed for d ̂with any life history trait. A moderate level of population differentiation (Fst = 0.155, 95% Cl 0.125 0.185) exists among the 46 walleye populations. AMO VA revealed that among populations, the variance explained by within primary drainage basins (14.3 %) was more than 10 times of the variance explained by among drainage basins (1.2 %). Neighbour-joining cluster analysis did not show strong clustering of populations within drainage basins, but it did show a distinct pattern of population division into northern vs. southern clades. Geographic patterning of differentiation among four of the five primary drainage basins could not be