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| Coptodon guineensis (Günther, 1862)
in Agnèse, Louizi, Gilles, et al., 2018.
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Abstract
Euryhaline Cichlid fish of the species Coptodon guineensis are present in different water holes situated in a dried depression in the desert in the extreme South of Morocco, the Sebkha of Imlili. A genetic survey of this population, using complete sequences of the ND2 gene (mtDNA) and sixteen microsatellite loci, revealed that the fish in the sebkha did not form a single population, but rather a metapopulation. This metapopulational structure may be regarded as good news from the point of view of the conservation of fish in the sebkha. Although small individual populations may have short, finite life spans, the metapopulation as a whole is more stable, because immigrants from one population are likely to re-colonize the habitat, left open by the extinction of another.
Keywords: Tilapia; Conservation; Endangered species
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| Fig. 2. Views of the sebkha and the fish present in the water holes. A. View from the top of the sand dunes. B. Band of plants surrounding the sebkha. C. Sandy soil with salt crystallization. D. Permanent water holes (two are clearly visible, five are indicated with arrows). E. Fish in a permanent hole. F. Close up of two specimens of C. guineensis from the sebkha (male above, female below). |
Jean-François Agnèse, Halima Louizi, André Gilles, Ouafae Berrada Rkhami, Abdelaziz Benhoussa, Abdeljebbar Qninba and Antoine Pariselle. 2018. A Euryhaline Fish, Lost in the Desert: The Unexpected Metapopulation Structure of Coptodon guineensis (Günther, 1862) in the Sebkha of Imlili [Un poisson euryhalin perdu dans le désert : structure métapopulationnelle inattendue de Coptodon guineensis (Günther, 1862) dans la Sebkha d’Imili]. Comptes Rendus Biologies. In Press. DOI: 10.1016/j.crvi.2018.01.002
