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Alien brown trout invasion of the Italian peninsula: the role of geological, climate and anthropogenic factors

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Abstract

Environmental, climate and historical factors are important to explain patterns of freshwater biodiversity and population dynamics in the Mediterranean area. This region is one of the most important areas for the maintenance of native lineages for brown trout. The aim of this study was the identification of the main drivers for the spread and the distribution of genetic introgression between alien brown trout and two native Mediterranean salmonids (brown and marble trout). Estimates of mitochondrial and nuclear introgression were from both the literature and original data and were used as dependent variables in a multivariate framework, correlating them to a suite of environmental and climate parameters. The last glacial maximum appeared as an important factor explaining the geographic pattern of alien brown trout genes throughout the Alps. Here, native populations of Mediterranean salmonids persisted in former refugia. Throughout the Italian Peninsula and major islands, geological setting of catchment and current climate conditions are key factors for securing the persistence of native trout populations. The reevaluation of genetic data regarding the spread of alien brown trout lineage into Mediterranean salmonids populations with a landscape approach allowed us to reveal the role of important factors implicated with the current pattern of distribution of remnant native populations of salmonids. This information provides new insights for improving conservation strategies and management of taxa threatened by the incipient global climate changes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank some local anglers for their assistance in specimen collection (Alfeo Busilacchio, Luca Ercoli, Luigi Evangelisti, Lucio Santoni, Adriano Togni and Mauro Zavaldi). We are also grateful to Lucio Lucadamo and Ezio Basso for providing us with specimens from Calabria and Sesia River, respectively. We also thank Valerio Ketmaier for his valuable suggestions. Finally, we wish to thank Gianandrea La Porta for his helpful comments during the revision of the manuscript. This research was supported by funds from Università Politecnica delle Marche (Ancona, Italy).

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  1. Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell’Ambiente (DiSVA), Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, 60131, Ancona, Italy

    A. Splendiani, P. Ruggeri, M. Giovannotti, G. Occhipinti, T. Fioravanti, P. Nisi Cerioni & V. Caputo Barucchi

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Ambientali (D3A), Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche 10, 60131, Ancona, Italy

    S. Pesaresi

  3. Dipartimento di Chimica, Biologia e Biotecnologie, Università di Perugia, Via Elce di Sotto, 06123, Perugia, Italy

    M. Lorenzoni

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  1. A. Splendiani
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  2. P. Ruggeri
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Correspondence to V. Caputo Barucchi.

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Splendiani, A., Ruggeri, P., Giovannotti, M. et al. Alien brown trout invasion of the Italian peninsula: the role of geological, climate and anthropogenic factors. Biol Invasions 18, 2029–2044 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-016-1149-7

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