New paper: fish ecomorphological variability associated with lake environment
A new paper is published, with an analysis led by Hans Recknagel and in collaboration with SCENE researchers Oliver Hooker and Colin Adams. We examined ecomorphological variability of Arctic charr in populations across 30 lakes in Scotland and Northern Ireland. As a summary univariate measure for complex trophic diversity in these fishes, we used maximum, minimum, mean and variance in head depth. We found that the extent of variability of head depth is closely associated with the physical lake environment - in particular 'ecosystem size', which is a combination of lake size, depth, volume, and littoral zone. There was no association of head depth with biotic community of other fishes in the lake, abundance of charr in the lake, nor charr genetic diversity. Recknagel, H., Hooker, O., Adams, C. E., & Elmer, K. R. 2017. Ecosystem size predicts eco-morphological variability in a postglacial diversification. Ecology and Evolution . image from Oliver Hooker