Uli Schliewen

Research Activities

Laboratory:

Zoological Institute of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Department Prof. Tautz.

Contact person (name and e-mail):

Uli Schliewen, schliewe@zi.uni-muenchen.de

Persons working on brown trout population genetics:

Kornelia Rassmann, Michael Miller, Diethard Tautz

General research topics of the laboratory:

Conservation and management, genetic population structure.

General description of research on brown trout population genetics:

Our project is funded in order to assess the impact of allochthonous introductions on autochthonous brown trout populations in Germany. We are interested in the the relationships between bavarian potamodromous populations and stream resident populations.

List of projects (brown trout) for the past 3 years:

Study #1

Researcher:	Lars Klein, Michael Miller, Kornelia Rassmann, Uli Schliewen, Diethard Tautz
Collaborators:	Claudia Englbrecht, Arnaud Estoup, Steven Weiss
Source of project funding:	Umweltbundesamt, Germany.
Topic:	Phylogeography, stocking effects, genetic population structure, gene flow, isolation by distance.
Objective:	Study impact of introductions on autochthonous populations in order to elaborate management recommendations.
Design:	We study the genetics of more than 50 brown trout populations from the Danube, Rhine and Elbe drainages in southeastern Germany (Bavaria) using microsatellite markers developed by Arnaud Estoup and collaborateurs, as well as mitochondrial D - Loop sequences. Our collection-sites will be classified according to the intensity of allochthonous brown trout input according to available information from different sources (historical data, presence of clearly allochthonous fishes like brook charr, angler information, etc....). We try to use Cottus gobio phylogeographic data (based on mitochondrial D - Loop data) to develop a hypothesis for the undisturbed phylogeography of brown trout populations, which presumably (!) should be similar to the one of Cottus gobio . In addition we consider to study genetics of a completely undisturbed brown trout metapopulation in southern Europe. Further we have developed a modified "Index of Biotic Integrity" (IBI) for brown trout streams, to classify the sites according to environmental degradation. This in order to investigate possible correlations between degradation, degree of disturbance by introductions and the genetic composition of the resident brown trout populations. Finally we study the distribution and heterogeneity of black (and perhaps red) dot marks as well as shape and number parr marks within and among each population and will compare the results with our genetic data.
Methodology:	MtDNA sequencing (5´ region of mtDNA d-loop), microsatellites.
Trout population:	Resident and potadromous populations.
Origin of samples:	Germany, (Greece or Turkey ?) Atlantic Sea Basin, Black Sea basin.
Status:	Started in October 1996, due September 2000.

Publications (brown trout genetics)

Theses (eg, PhD and MSc theses):

Klein, L (1998) Modifikation und Bewertung eines "Index of Biotic Integrity" (IBI) zur Evaluation von Mittelgebirgsbächen. Diplomarbeit, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München.