Postglacial recolonization of eastern Blacknose Dace, Rhinichthys atratulus (Teleostei: Cyprinidae), through the gateway of New England

Abstract

During the last ice age, much of North America far south as 40°N was covered by glaciers (Hewitt 2000). About 20,000 years ago, as the glaciers retreated, the hydrologic landscape changed dramatically creating waterways for fish dispersal. The number of populations responsible for recolonization and the regions from which they recolonized are unknown for many freshwater fishes living in New England and southeastern Canada. The Blacknose Dace,Rhinichthys atratulus, is one of the freshwater fish species that recolonized this region. We hypothesize that the earliest deglaciated region, modern-day Connecticut, was recolonized byR. atratulusvia a single founding event by a single population. In this paper, we test this hypothesis phylogenetically with regard to the major drainage basins within Connecticut. The mitochondrial DNA exhibits low nucleotide diversity, high haplotype diversity, and a dominant haplotype found across the state. A small percentage of individuals in the Housatonic drainage basin, however, share a haplotype with populations in New York drainage basins, a haplotype not found elsewhere in Connecticut's drainage basins. We calculated a range for the rate of divergence for NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (nd2) and control region (ctr) of 4.43–6.76% and 3.84–8.48% per million years (my), respectively. While this range is higher than the commonly accepted rate of 2% for mitochondrial DNA, these results join a growing list of publications finding high rates of divergence for various taxa (Peterson and Masel 2009). The data support the conclusion that Connecticut as a whole was recolonized initially by a single founding event that came from a single refugium. Subsequently, the Housatonic basin alone experienced a secondary recolonization event.