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Polymorphic mountain whitefish ( P rosopium williamsoni ) in a coastal riverscape: size class assemblages, distribution, and habitat associations
Author(s) -
Starr James C.,
Torgersen Christian E.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
ecology of freshwater fish
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.667
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1600-0633
pISSN - 0906-6691
DOI - 10.1111/eff.12163
Subject(s) - snout , habitat , spatial distribution , ecology , biology , substrate (aquarium) , spatial ecology , ordination , geography , remote sensing
We compared the assemblage structure, spatial distributions, and habitat associations of mountain whitefish ( P rosopium williamsoni ) morphotypes and size classes. We hypothesised that morphotypes would have different spatial distributions and would be associated with different habitat features based on feeding behaviour and diet. Spatially continuous sampling was conducted over a broad extent (29 km) in the C alawah River, WA ( USA ). Whitefish were enumerated via snorkelling in three size classes: small (10–29 cm), medium (30–49 cm), and large (≥50 cm). We identified morphotypes based on head and snout morphology: a pinocchio form that had an elongated snout and a normal form with a blunted snout. Large size classes of both morphotypes were distributed downstream of small and medium size classes, and normal whitefish were distributed downstream of pinocchio whitefish. Ordination of whitefish assemblages with nonmetric multidimensional scaling revealed that normal whitefish size classes were associated with higher gradient and depth, whereas pinocchio whitefish size classes were positively associated with pool area, distance upstream, and depth. Reach‐scale generalised additive models indicated that normal whitefish relative density was associated with larger substrate size in downstream reaches ( R 2 = 0.64), and pinocchio whitefish were associated with greater stream depth in the reaches farther upstream ( R 2 = 0.87). These results suggest broad‐scale spatial segregation (1–10 km), particularly between larger and more phenotypically extreme individuals. These results provide the first perspective on spatial distributions and habitat relationships of polymorphic mountain whitefish.