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<br />RESULTS AND DISCUSSION <br /> <br />Speckled Dace (Rhinichthys osculus) <br /> <br />Speckled dace were collected from 20 of the 27 sites sampled and a total of 96 haplotypes were <br />identified among the populations (Table 4). The number ofhaplotypes per population ranged <br />from a low of two (Groundhog Creek- site # 21) to a high of 16 (White River below Kenney <br />Reservoir - site #6), with an average of 7.5 haplotypes per population. Given the high number of <br />haplotypes found in the survey, unique patterns were expected, and these ranged from no unique <br />haplotypes in Groundhog Creek of the Dolores River system (site 21) to a high of eight unique <br />haplotypes in the San Juan River (site 27). The populations averaged 3.6 unique haplotypes <br />each. <br /> <br />The overall distribution and frequencies ofhaplotypes among populations are shown in Table 5. <br />The haplotypes are numbered from 1 through 96. The 20 stations containing speckled dace are <br />the columns, ordered by drainage basin. Only haplotype 1 shows a wide distribution, being <br />present in samples from the Yampa, White, Colorado and Dolores rivers. It is most frequent in <br />the Colorado and Dolores Rivers. Haplotype 12 occurs in both the Colorado River and the <br />Dolores River subbasins. Four haplotypes, numbers 52, 54, 58, and 64, were shared between the <br />White and Yampa subbasins. The remaining haplotypes occur either within single populations <br />or between populations within a river subbasin. This pattern indicates that a strong tendency <br />exists for speckled dace to be unique within drainages. The least separation between river <br />subbasins occurs between the White and Yampa rivers. <br /> <br />A more formal examination of the degree of genetic differentiation between populations and <br />river systems is obtained with fixation indices (F statistics). The sampled populations were <br />grouped by major river subbasin, resulting in five groups, the Yampa River, the White River, the <br />Colorado River (including the Gunnison River), the Dolores River, and the San Juan River. <br />Speckled dace were only collected from 20 of the 27 stations, but the original site numbering <br />(Figure 1) was retained on the matrices. <br /> <br />The Fst values for speckled dace are given in Table 6. In general, values less than 0.05 indicate <br />little genetic divergence. Populations within this range are similar enough to be considered to be <br />identical. Fst values between 0.05 and 0.15 are considered indicative of moderate differentiation <br />and those with values from 0.15 and 0.25 are highly differentiated. Any value over 0.25 <br />indicates great genetic divergence (Hartl and Clark 1997). Further, Arlequin (Schneider et al. <br />1997) generates a list of those Fst values that can be considered statistically significant, based on <br />sample size and the degree of genetic differentiation. These are highlighted in bold type in table <br />6. None of the populations within the same river subbasin have significantly different Fst values. <br />That is, within each of the major river systems, the Yampa, White, Colorado, Gunnison, Dolores, <br />and San Juan rivers, little differentiation can be directly detected with the Fst index, despite the <br />presence of a number of unique haplotypes in many of the populations. Populations from the <br />two systems that share the most haplotypes (Table 5), the Yampa and White rivers, are <br />moderately to highly divergent from one another with the exception of Station 9 which is not <br />significant in its differences from two of the four Yampa River sites. Station 9 is the <br />downstream-most sampling station on the White River system. Both the Yampa and White <br /> <br />27 <br />