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Disparate past demographic histories of three small Scombridae (Actinopterygii) species in Tunisian waters

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Abstract

The bullet tuna Auxis rochei, the little tunny Euthynnus alletteratus, and the Atlantic Chub mackerel Scomber colias are three small Scombridae with similar life-history traits such as overlapping epipelagic distribution and a shared spawning area in Tunisian waters. In this study, we compared the phylogeography and demographic histories of these species by analyzing the sequence variability of the mitochondrial DNA control region. None of the species showed genetic differentiation in their Tunisian distribution; however, we inferred three completely different population histories. E. alletteratus showed a demographic history of a very recent bottleneck followed by sudden population expansion probably consequence of a population decline in the Last Glacial Maximum. S. colias also presented a population expansion after collapse but in this case about ten-fold older than that observed in E. alletteratus. Finally, A. rochei presented a history of demographic stability. These contrasting population histories were discussed based on their possible differences in life-history traits, but the hypothesis of stochastic factors affecting the demography of these species was also invoked.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Hajjej Ghailen for providing some Euthynnus alletteratus samples. We also are indebted to fishermen from localities where we took samples. We also thank Dr. Carles Pla and Dr. Oriol Vidal who help us in the laboratory process and data analysis.

Conflict of interest

All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Compliance with ethics requirements

All work met the requirements stated by the Spanish (RD53/2013) and Catalonian (D214/1997) laws of animal care and experimentation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Biology Unit, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis-El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia

    Hassen Allaya & Monia Trabelsi

  2. National Institute of Sea Sciences and Technologies (I.N.S.T.M), 2025 Salammbô, Tunis, Tunisia

    Hassen Allaya & Abdallah Hattour

  3. Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences of Gafsa, University of Gafsa, Gafsa, Tunisia

    Abderraouf Ben Faleh

  4. Laboratori Ictiologia Genètica, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain

    Jordi Viñas

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  1. Hassen Allaya
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  2. Abderraouf Ben Faleh
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  3. Abdallah Hattour
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  4. Monia Trabelsi
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  5. Jordi Viñas
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Correspondence to Hassen Allaya or Jordi Viñas.

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Allaya, H., Faleh, A.B., Hattour, A. et al. Disparate past demographic histories of three small Scombridae (Actinopterygii) species in Tunisian waters. Hydrobiologia 758, 19–30 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2261-x

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