Abstract

The Mottled Sculpin (Cottus bairdii) is a widely distributed benthic freshwater fish native to major rivers in the Mississippi River drainage of the US and Canada. In North Carolina, the species is found in Gulf-coast draining rivers on the western side of the Eastern Continental Divide. It is particularly widespread and abundant in the French Broad River Drainage. Nevertheless, several populations are known from the Atlantic-draining Broad River Basin. These populations all occur near the headwaters of the Broad River Drainage, just to the east of the Eastern Continental Divide. While Mottled Sculpin has been widely introduced elsewhere due to their use as bait, no consensus has been reached regarding the status of the Broad River sculpin in North Carolina, particularly whether they are native or introduced. Twenty samples from each of two populations were collected, including the presumed native Cane Creek population, a tributary of the Haw River, and the presumed introduced population from the Green River, a tributary of the Broad River. Two loci of mitochondrial DNA were sequenced, generating about 1,500 base pairs of sequence data combined. My hypothesis was that if the Broad River populations are introduced, they should share mitochondrial haplotypes with the French Broad population. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a significant number of shared haplotypes between the two populations, thus revealing that the Broad River population was introduced. In addition, the Haw Creek population revealed a divergence within its population, which is a curious observation on which warrants further investigation.

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