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<br />Title: <br /> <br />Taxonomic status of the Genus Gila <br /> <br />A. Lead Role and ParticiDants. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife <br />Service(Region 6) will be the primary lead for this effort. Dr. <br />Wayne starnes, smithsonian Institute, Division of Fishes, will <br />serve as the project leader for the basin wide review of Gila <br />taxonomy. This conservation measure will be initiated as part of <br />the Upper Basin Recovery Implementation Program (UBRIP) and will <br />be under the general direction and receive funding from the <br />Recovery Implementation Committee. The Management and Technical <br />Groups of the Committee will ensure that research efforts are <br />focused and contribute toward the recovery of Gila throughout the <br />basin. Input and participation in the studies has been and will <br />continue to be sought from both upper and lower basin researchers. <br />Development of final research proposals and funding levels is an <br />open process that allows government, academic, and private <br />investigators to contribute. <br /> <br />B. Purpose and Backqround. The systematic and taxonomic <br />evaluation of the Gila complex in the Colorado River has long been <br />a subject of disagreement and discussion among fishery workers <br />trying to identify, assess impacts to, and provide recovery for <br />many of the formally protected native fishes. The three preeminent <br />species include the endangered humpback chub, Gila cvoha, and <br />bony tail chub, Gila eleqans, as well as the more common roundtail <br />chub, Gila robusta. The relationship, genetically as well as <br />taxonomically, of the Colorado River humpback chubs to other <br />humpback chubs in the basin needs to be known to protect the <br />heterozygosity and genetic identity of the species and to ensure <br />that stocking programs, if implemented, will be compatible with <br />existing wild stocks. Development of a program to maintain <br />different genetic stocks in hatcheries or refugia is dependent upon <br />a complete understanding of Gila taxonomy. <br /> <br />c. Ob;ectives and Goals. The goal of this conservation measure <br />is to clarify the systematic! genetic/taxonomic relationships of <br />the Gila ~ in the Colorado River Basin. Some specific <br />objectives of this effort include: <br /> <br />1. Determining the genetic relationships between chubs at <br />critical sites through the most advanced analytical methods <br />(i.e., Mitochondrial DNA, electrophoresis, etc.). <br /> <br />2. Determining the sources of genotypic and phenotypic variation <br />within and among samples from different localities or <br />popUlations. <br /> <br />J. Identifying characters useful in discriminating among species <br />and populations, particularly in the field. <br /> <br />4 <br />