Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Louisiana
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

For any fishery, natural genetic variation among and within stocks is of critical importance, affecting aquaculture success and the outcome of restoration, recovery from overharvest ( and the capacity to respond to environmental change . Nevertheless, there are no comprehensive data on genetic variation among or within Louisiana oyster stocks, limiting managers’ abilities to choose stocks for aquaculture, or to predict the ways that environmental change might differentially impact stocks with varying environmental histories. Specifically, this research will address the following questions: A.How much genomic variation exists among oysters from geographically separated sites with differing environmental conditions? B.Do genetic differences among sites translate into differences in growth and survival among stocks translocated among sites? C.Is there genetic evidence of post-settlement selective mortality, which would contribute to differentiation among stocks? D.Do the larvae of adults from different sites vary in their salinity tolerances?