Evolutionary relationships among sympatric life history forms of Dolly Varden inhabiting the landlocked Kronotsky Lake, Kamchatka, and a neighboring anadromous population

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
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Abstract

We investigated the evolutionary relationships among five sympatric morphs of Dolly Varden Salvelinus malma (white, Schmidti, longhead, river, and dwarf) inhabiting landlocked Kronotsky Lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, and an anadromous population below the barrier waterfall on the outflowing Kronotsky River. Morphological analyses indicated phenotypic differentiation corresponding to preferred habitat, the longhead (a limnetic piscivorous morph) having a fusiform body, long jaw, and short fins and the Schmidti (a benthic morph) having a robust body, small jaw, and long fins. Analysis of molecular variance among the Kronotsky Lake morphs indicated that contemporary gene flow is restricted both among morphs within locations and among locations within morphs. Gene flow from Kronotsky Lake into the anadromous population also appears to be restricted. Our findings indicate that there are two divergent evolutionary lineages, one consisting of the white, Schmidti, river, and dwarf morphs and the other of the longhead morph and the anadromous population, which suggests that Kronotsky Lake was subject to separate waves of immigration. The Kronotsky Lake Dolly Varden morphs may represent an example of ecological speciation in progress, and we present a working hypothesis for the diversification of morphs within Kronotsky Lake.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Evolutionary relationships among sympatric life history forms of Dolly Varden inhabiting the landlocked Kronotsky Lake, Kamchatka, and a neighboring anadromous population
Series title Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
DOI 10.1577/T08-016.1
Volume 138
Issue 1
Year Published 2009
Language English
Publisher Taylor & Francis
Contributing office(s) Western Fisheries Research Center
Description 14 p.
First page 1
Last page 14
Country Russia
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