The effect of man-made dams on peripheral stream-dwelling populations of

Nigronia serricornis (Say) (Megaloptera: Corydalidae).

We would like to thank the NYDEC bioassessment

unit for site information and EE Castle, CL Picucci, MJ

Dami, JS Salvino, LA Salvino, and EH Salvino for

assistance in the field. This research is funded by grants

from the SUNY College Senate Committee on Research.

Joanna R. Salvino Faculty Sponsor: Jeffrey S. Heilveil, Ph.D.

Biology Department, SUNY College at Oneonta, Oneonta, NY

Fine-scale interactions within a species promote

broad-scale population health by allowing for adaptation

in changing environments. The geography of a region

dictates the movement and interaction of natural

populations; for example, physical features can impede

dispersal.

Altered landscapes as a result of anthropogenic

development may also inhibit physical interactions

among organisms. Yammamoto et al. (2004) showed that

man-made reservoirs directly affect gene flow patterns

upstream and downstream of the dam, but there has not

been much, if any, research on the effect of reservoirs on

peripheral populations.

The dam that was built in the 1950s to create the

Pepacton reservoir in Delaware County, New York flooded

out four villages and turned a free-flowing river into a

relatively still-water area. This type of man-made land

alteration could potentially affect stream dwellers such as

Nigronia serricornis, the saw-combed fishfly (Figure 1).

Data collected by the NYSDEC show that Nigronia

serricornis lives in many streams surrounding the

Pepacton reservoir, and would be a model organism to

sample for this project.

Bioassessment data from the NYS DEC was used to find

2 sets (one plot in tributaries that feed directly into the

Pepacton Reservoir, and one plot in tributaries indirectly

connected to the Pepacton Reservoir by the Delaware River,

that will serve as a reference) of 3 sites at roughly the same

geographic distance (<12 km) (Figures 2 &3). Up to 20 N.

serricornis larvae per site were collected on ice and returned

to SUNY College at Oneonta for DNA extraction. Larvae will

be genotyped for two polymorphic microsatellite loci

developed recently by Stevenson (2013), and will be

amplified using the thermal cycler protocol of Real et al.

(2009). Tests of Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, Analysis of

Molecular Variance (AMOVA; used to calculate FST, a measure

of genetic isolation), pairwise-calculations of FST, and exact

tests of sample differentiation will be performed using

Arlequin (Excoffier 2005)(ver. 3.5.1.3). These tests will be

used to compare the amount of genetic isolation between the

sites both on and off the reservoir, and help to determine the

role of the reservoir as a barrier to gene flow.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

METHODS

LITERATURE CITED Excoffier, L., Guillaume, L. and S. Schneider. 2005. Arlequin (version 3.0): An integrated software package for

population genetics data analysis. Evolutionary Bioinformatics Online 1: 47-50.

Real, K. M., D. J. Schmidt, and J. M. Hughes. 2009. Mogurnda adspersa microsatellite markers: multiplexing and multi-tailed primer tagging. Conservation Genetics Resources 1:411-414.

Stevenson, R. M. 2013. Facilitating Ecological Research: Development of microsatellite markers for the megalopteran Nigronia serricornis (Say). M. Sc. Thesis. State University of New York, College at Oneonta.

Yammamoto S, Yurita K, Koizumi I, Maekawa K (2004) Genetic differentiation of white-spotted charr (Salvelinus

leucomaenis) populations after habitat fragmentation: Spatial-temporal changes in gene frequencies. Conservation Genetics. 5: 529 - 538.

Fig. 1: Nigronia serricornis (Say)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

SIGNIFICANCE OF RESEARCH

I will use molecular data to determine whether the Pepacton reservoir in Delaware County, NY has an impact on the genetic exchange, or

gene flow, between populations of Nigronia serricornis (Say). Individuals were collected from six sites surrounding the Pepacton reservoir: three

in tributaries directly connected to the reservoir and three in tributaries indirectly connected to the reservoir by the Delaware River. Recently-

developed microsatellite markers, genetic markers commonly used in forensics and population genetics, will be used to genotype collected

individuals, determine their relatedness, and compare the level of gene flow between metapopulations on and off the reservoir.

By answering these questions, we can gain a better

understanding of the contemporary effects on aquatic

organisms in our area. These data should allow for the

contribution of growing literature on anthropogenic

impacts on natural populations and hopefully inform

stakeholders and planners about any indirect impacts of

impoundments on gene flow. Furthermore, these data

can also be used in planning mitigation projects, aiding

conservation projects in flowing water ecosystems.

Fig. 3: Map of specific sites. Inset shows location of reservoir in NYS.

Fig. 2: Pepacton Reservoir, Delaware County, NY.

© A. Hornburg Heilveil