Multi-generational interactions between escaped farm and wild atlantic salmon: a risk assessment perspective

The general objective of our proposed research is to employ a multidisciplinary approach to assess the potential genetic and ecological consequences of interactions between escaped farm and wild Atlantic salmon in North America. By combining quantitative genetics, functional genomics, experimental data and computer modeling, our research will represent an extensive effort for evaluating the fitness consequences of hybridization between farm and different wild Atlantic salmon populations over multiple generations, as well as varying levels of introgression of non-native farm salmon genes into wild populations. From a risk assessment perspective, our research in the short-term will provide invaluable data on the potential impacts of multi-generational hybridization between farm and wild Atlantic salmon in North America. In the long-term, the proposed research will help to predict how likely it is that genes will move from farm salmon into different wild populations. It will also aid in determining the degree to which farm salmon gene introgression might negatively affect the persistence and adaptive potential of wild Atlantic salmon populations. Our research will, thus, provide timely information for guiding policy decisions regarding the conservation biology of a member of one of the most socio-economically and culturally important groups of aquatic species in the northern hemisphere (salmonid fishes). Broadly speaking, our research will contribute to an understanding of: (i) the potential consequences of hybridization between artificially-selected organisms and populations of their wild relatives; (ii) how genes might move from artificially-selected organisms to populations of their wild relatives; and (iii) how fitness in populations of wild relatives might be reduced through varying degrees hybridization and introgression with artificially-selected organisms. Our work also has implications for other emerging areas of international research, such as the consequences of interactions between transgenic organisms and their wild relatives.