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Abstract Conservation units (CUs) are important tools for supporting the implementation of standardized management practices for exploited species. Following the adoption of the Wild Salmon Policy in Canada, CUs were defined for Pacific salmon based on characteristics related to ecotype, life history and genetic variation using microsatellite markers as indirect measures of local adaptation. Genomic data sets have the potential to improve the definition of CUs by reducing variance around estimates of population genetic parameters, thereby increasing the power to detect more subtle patterns of population genetic structure and by providing an opportunity to incorporate adaptive information more directly with the identification of variants putatively under selection. We used one of the largest genomic data sets recently published for a nonmodel species, comprising 5662 individual Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) from 149 sampling locations and a total of 24,542 high‐quality SNPs obtained using genotyping‐by‐sequencing and mapped to the Coho salmon reference genome to (1) evaluate the current delineation of CUs for Coho in Canada and (2) compare patterns of population structure observed using neutral and outlier loci from genotype–environment association analyses to determine whether separate CUs that capture adaptive diversity are needed. Our results reflected CU boundaries on the whole, with the majority of sampling locations managed in the same CU clustering together within genetic groups. However, additional groups that are not currently represented by CUs were also uncovered. We observed considerable overlap in the genetic clusters identified using neutral or candidate loci, indicating a general congruence in patterns of genetic variation driven by local adaptation and gene flow in this species. Consequently, we suggest that the current CU boundaries for Coho salmon are largely well‐suited for meeting the Canadian Wild Salmon Policy's objective of defining biologically distinct groups, but we highlight specific areas where CU boundaries may be refined.

Abstract Human activities induce direct or indirect selection pressure on natural population and may ultimately affect population's integrity. While numerous conservation programs aimed to minimize human‐induced genomic variation, human‐induced environmental variation may generate epigenomic variation potentially affecting fitness through phenotypic modifications. Major questions remain pertaining to how much epigenomic variation arises from environmental heterogeneity, whether this variation can persist throughout life, and whether it can be transmitted across generations. We performed whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) on the sperm of genetically indistinguishable hatchery and wild‐born migrating adults of Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) from two geographically distant rivers at different epigenome scales. Our results showed that coupling WGBS with fine‐scale analyses (local and chromosomal) allows the detection of parallel early‐life hatchery‐induced epimarks that differentiate wild from hatchery‐reared salmon. Four chromosomes and 183 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) displayed a significant signal of methylation differentiation between hatchery and wild‐born Coho salmon. Moreover, those early‐life epimarks persisted in germ line cells despite about 1.5 year spent in the ocean following release from hatchery, opening the possibility for transgenerational inheritance. Our results strengthen the hypothesis that epigenomic modifications environmentally induced during early‐life development persist in germ cells of adults until reproduction, which could potentially impact their fitness.