Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 286, Issue 1913, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.1992
Keywords
adaptive radiation; Arctic charr; ecological opportunity; niche expansion; speciation
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Funding
- EAWAG
- University of Bern
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Ecological opportunity is considered a crucial factor for adaptive radiation. Here, we combine genetic, morphological and ecological data to assess species and ecomorphological diversity of Artic charr in six lakes of a catchment in southernmost Greenland, where only charr and stickleback occur. Because the diversity of habitats and resources increases with lake size, we predict a positive association between lake size and the extent of ecomorphological diversity. The largest lake of the catchment harbours the largest Arctic charr assemblage known today. It consists of six genetically differentiated species belonging to five ecomorphs (anadromous, littoral benthic, profundal dwarf, planktivorous, piscivorous), of which the latter comprises two ecomorphologically extremely similar species. Lakes of intermediate size contain two ecomorphologically and genetically distinct species. Small lakes harbour one genetically homogeneous, yet sometimes ecomorphologically variable population. Supporting our prediction, lake size is positively correlated with the extent of ecomorphological specialization towards profundal, pelagic and piscivorous lifestyle. Furthermore, assemblagewide morphospace increases sharply when more than one genetic cluster is present. Our data suggest that ecological opportunity and speciation jointly determine phenotypic expansion in this charr radiation.
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