ABSTRACT
Eugène-Marchand, 1030, Avenue de la Médecine, Local 1145 Université Laval, Québec (Québec) G1V 0A6 Canada.
E-mail: Louis.Bernatchez@bio.ulaval.ca *Corresponding author: carol.stepien@utoledo.edu
The percid genus Perca contains three economically and ecologically important species, which are top piscivores in North America and Eurasia. The yellow perch P. fl avescens Mitchill, 1814 is endemic to North America, whereas two Perca species are native to Eurasia-the European perch P. fl uviatilis Linnaeus, 1758 and the Balkhash perch P. schrenkii Kessler, 1874. Both the yellow perch and the European perch are widespread across much of their respective continents (Figs. 1 and 2), where they support popular recreational and commercial fi sheries. They each have been widely introduced for angling outside their native ranges. Perch also serve as an important model species in ecotoxicology studies (e.g., Chapter 10, this volume). The goals of this chapter are to summarize the current knowledge and recent study results about their evolutionary and population genetic diversifi cation, with implications and suggestions for further research.
