Cryptic genetic biodiversity in freshwater fish: power for detection, and genomic characterization

Sympatric populations represent conspecific populations that coexist in the same geographical area during at least a part of their life cycle. Such populations are of great interest in evolutionary biology, as they may represent the first steps of sympatric speciation processes and genetic adaptations to ecological niches. From the perspective of conservation and management, identifying and monitoring sympatric populations is imperative; they signify diversity below the species level which has been documented to contribute to the portfolio effect in ecosystem stability. We hypothesize that sympatric populations are more common than what is currently recognized. There are several reasons to …