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Restoration Of Native Biodiversity In Altered Environments: Reintroduction Of Atlantic Salmon Into Lake Ontario, Aimee Lee S. Houde

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Less than a quarter of reintroduction programs have succeeded in re-establishing a self-sustaining population of an extirpated species. Optimal source population selection, based on an evolutionary perspective, could increase the fitness of translocated individuals, thereby improving the success rate of restoring extirpated populations. Here, using three source populations of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar (LaHave River, Sebago Lake, and Lac Saint-Jean), that are being used for reintroduction efforts into Lake Ontario, I examined two optimal source population selection approaches: environment matching and adaptive potential. For environment matching, source populations from locations containing similar key environment features as the reintroduction location should …