Of paleo-genes and Perch: what if an "alien" is actually a native?

Of paleo-genes and Perch: what if an "alien" is actually a native?

Blog Article

Documenting whether a biotic taxon is native or alien to an ecosystem has theoretical value for ecological and evolutionary studies, and has practical value because it can potentially identify a taxon as a desirable component of an ecosystem or target it for removal.In some cases, however, such background information is inadequate or unavailable.Here we use paleo-DNA to re-evaluate ngetikin.com the historical status of yellow perch in the 6 million acre Adirondack State Park of northern New York.

Yellow perch DNA in a 2200-year sediment record reveals a long-term native status for these supposedly alien fish and challenges assumptions that they necessarily exclude native trout from upland lakes.Similar approaches could be applied to other species with uncertain historical distributions and could help to click here identify unrecognized pockets of biodiversity.