Genetic approaches reveal a healthy population and an unexpectedly recent origin for an isolated desert spring fish

Foskett Spring in Oregon's desert harbors a historically threatened population of Western Speckled Dace (Rhinichthys klamathensis). Though recently delisted, the dace's recruitment depends upon regular removal of encroaching vegetation. Previous studies assumed that Foskett Dace separated from others in the Warner Valley about 10,000 years ago, thereby framing an enigma about the population's surprising ability to persist for so long in a tiny habitat easily overrun by plants. To investigate that persistence and the effectiveness of interventions to augment population size, we assessed genetic diversity among daces inhabiting Foskett Spring, a refuge at Dace Spring, and three nearby streams. Analysis revealed a robust effective population size (N_e) of nearly 5000 within Foskett Spring, though N_e in the Dace Spring refuge is just 10% of that value. Heterozygosity is slightly lower than expected based on random mating at all five sites, indicating mild inbreeding, but not at a level of concern. These results confirm the genetic health of Foskett Dace. Unexpectedly, genetic differentiation reveals closer similarity between Foskett Dace and a newly discovered population from Nevada's Coleman Creek than between Foskett Dace and dace elsewhere in Oregon. Demographic modeling inferred Coleman Creek as the ancestral source of Foskett Dace fewer than 1000 years ago, much more recently than previously suspected and possibly coincident with the arrival of large herbivores whose grazing may have maintained open water suitable for reproduction. These results solve the enigma of persistence by greatly shortening the duration over which Foskett Dace have inhabited their isolated spring.