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A research centre for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands
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Rehabilitation of a threatened species, the Marble Trout in Slovenia
Project leader: Alain CRIVELLI (See the CV)
Marble Trout is a Mediterranean endemic fish listed in the Habitats Directive and IUCN Red Data Book. This species is facing several acute conservation issues common to many endemic Mediterranean salmonids, such as fragmentation and isolation of the populations through management works along the river, introduction of exotic species resulting in hybridisation, fishing and climate change.
The main objectives of the project are:
- Monitoring of seven genetically pure populations of Marble Trout and of three translocated populations will be used to assess the viability of small Marble Trout populations according to demographic and environmental factors as well as potential climatic changes.
- Development of an integrated management plan for the watershed, the resolution of conflict for wise use of water and natural resources at a river basin scale, and the promotion of sustainable activities.
Contents:
Issues :
Conservation issues
Conservation and management of a Mediterranean endemic fish (listed in Habitats Directive and IUCN Red Data Book) and its watershed. Testing, monitoring and validation of methodology applied to conservation of threatened fish species. 75% of freshwater fish endemic to the Mediterranean region live in streams and rivers (>200 fish species). Most of them have fragmented populations today which no longer function as metapopulations, and the size of their populations has been very much reduced. Our project deals with the population dynamics of fragmented small populations of a fish species, the Marble Trout, not functioning as a metapopulation, which has very specific environmental requirements: high flow regime with oxygenated waters, no erosion clogging the substrate (spawning), sensitive to high water temperature and drought.
Within the context of global change, all these items (quantity and quality of water, sedimentation due to erosion and dry streams) are or will be the main water issues for freshwater fish in the future in all the Mediterranean streams and rivers. The results of our investigations in Slovenia will help to guide management of these small fragmented populations of freshwater fish in the Mediterranean region.
Scientific issues
- To assess the role of variability (environmental and demographic stochasticity, habitat quality) in influencing population growth and the probability of extinction of a threatened freshwater fish species
- To complete in 2010 our experiment of hybridisation between Brown and Marble Trout started in 1999 in four streams. In 2006-2010 we will investigate the following aspects:
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- How long will we observe pure Brown and pure Marble Trout born in the river in our populations?
- What will be the fitness of the F1 hybrid (marking scheme)?
- Will they reproduce successfully or are they sterile (co-adapted gene breakdown)?
Partners:
- Association Tolmin Angling
- University of Parme (Italy)
- University of Montpellier 2
- University of Ljubljana