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The influence of swimming demand on phenotypic plasticity and morphological integration: a comparison of two polymorphic charr species

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Abstract

In northern freshwater lakes, several fish species have populations composed of discrete morphs, usually involving a divergence between benthic and limnetic morphs. Although it has been suggested that swimming demand plays an important role in morphological differentiation, thus influencing habitat selection, it is unclear how it affects reaction norms, patterns in character correlation, and levels of morphological integration. We examined whether swimming demand could induce morphological plasticity in the directions expected under divergent habitat selection, and evaluated its influence on the morphological integration in Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) and brook charr (S. fontinalis), two congeneric species exhibiting conspicuous and subtle resource polymorphism, respectively. We found that changes in morphology were induced by differential swimming demands in both species. The length of the pectoral fin was the character that responded most strongly according to the predicted morphological expectations under divergent habitat selection. High levels of morphological plasticity, relatively low levels of integration, and differences found in the morphological correlation structure among water velocity treatments suggest that constraints on morphological change are unlikely in either species, thus allowing great potential for phenotypic flexibility in both species. The magnitude of character integration, however, was larger for Arctic charr than for brook charr. This latter result is discussed in the light of the differences in the level of polymorphism between the two species in the wild. The results of the present study indicate that swimming demand alone may not be sufficient to generate the polymorphism encountered in nature. Given that both diet and swimming demands can induce morphological changes, it would be important to conduct experiments targeting the interaction between the morphological modules related to trophic and swimming demands.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Jens Andersson, Steven Kohler, and an anonymous reviewer for providing valuable comments on our manuscript. We thank Sophia Balcomb and Craig Osenberg for editorial comments. We thank Pierre East for his invaluable assistance in designing and running the laboratory experiments, and Steve Garçeau for morphological measurements. Raphaël Proulx gave helpful comments at different stages of the present study. The laboratory work was supported by a grant from le Fonds pour la formation des chercheurs et d’aide à la recherche (FCAR) and la Société de recherche et de développement en aquiculture continentale (SORDAC) (Action concertée FCAR-SORDAC program) to P. Magnan. The analytical work was supported by the Canada Research Chair program to P. Magnan. P.R. Peres-Neto was supported by a Postdoctoral fellowship from the Canada Research Chair in Freshwater Ecology.

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  1. Pedro R. Peres-Neto

    Present address: Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128 succ. A, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H3C 3J7

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  1. Groupe de recherche sur les écosystèmes aquatiques, Départment de chimie-biologie, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada, G9A 5H7

    Pedro R. Peres-Neto & Pierre Magnan

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  1. Pedro R. Peres-Neto
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  2. Pierre Magnan
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Correspondence to Pedro R. Peres-Neto.

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Peres-Neto, P.R., Magnan, P. The influence of swimming demand on phenotypic plasticity and morphological integration: a comparison of two polymorphic charr species. Oecologia 140, 36–45 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-004-1562-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-004-1562-y

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