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Morphological Differentiation of the Round Goby Neogobius melanostomus (Pallas, 1814) at the Northeastern Border of Its Invasive Distribution Range

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Contemporary Problems of Ecology Aims and scope

Abstract—

The round goby is a small demersal fish that is considered one of the top invasive fish species. Having settled far beyond its native Ponto–Caspian region, the round goby currently inhabits the basins of the Baltic and North Seas, as well as the Great Lakes of North America. Since 2005, the species has been increasingly recorded in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Finland, where one of its northernmost populations has been formed. This work is focused on studying the morphological differentiation of the round goby from different parts of the Gulf of Finland in order to assess the spatial heterogeneity of its populations and their isolation and to suggest the most probable ways the species penetrated and dispersed there. Four samples were compared according to 5 meristic and 35 morphometric traits. The traits characterized the number of fin rays and rows of scales along the body, the shape of the body and head, and the position and shape of the fins. The comparison was carried out using indices, parametric and nonparametric tests, factorial and cluster analysis, and multivariate scaling. Round goby samples collected at a distance of 40 to 270 km significantly differed in body shape, position, and size of fins, while other characters were less prominently different between locations. The round goby from the western part of the gulf differed the most from goby of its eastern part, where morphological differentiation between locations was also observed. The results of the study indicate the existence of round goby populations of in the Gulf of Finland, each of which is characterized by morphological characters associated with local habitat conditions and the limited migrations of the species within the gulf. Based on the results, we suggested the independent introduction of the round goby into the western and eastern parts of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank A.I. Zolotnikov, A.N. Smirnov, A.S. Dudin, I.I. Tarasov, R. Väinölä, R. Puntila-Dodd, H. Herlevi, and M. Italiani for assistance in sampling the material and a reviewer for valuable comments on the manuscript.

Funding

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (State Task no. АААА-А19-119020790033-9) and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 17-05-00782A.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 199034, St. Petersburg, Russia

    A. O. Yurtseva

  2. Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, St. Petersburg Branch, 199053, St. Petersburg, Russia

    A. A. Uspenskiy

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  1. A. O. Yurtseva
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  2. A. A. Uspenskiy
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Correspondence to A. O. Yurtseva or A. A. Uspenskiy.

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Yurtseva, A.O., Uspenskiy, A.A. Morphological Differentiation of the Round Goby Neogobius melanostomus (Pallas, 1814) at the Northeastern Border of Its Invasive Distribution Range. Contemp. Probl. Ecol. 15, 51–61 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1995425522010103

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