Synopsis
Although morphological differences among ecotypes have often been observed, little is known about the adaptive value of these differences in terms of the relative performance of individuals. The first objective of this study was to compare specific growth rates, muscle proteins, lipids, and water content in the muscles and digestive tracts of littoral and pelagic brook charr (1+) when individuals of both forms were restricted to feeding on zooplankton for 76 days, in pelagic enclosures of a Canadian Shield lake. The second objective was to determine if differences in the physiological performance of experimental fish were related to differences in their morphology. The specific growth rate was low and did not differ significantly between littoral and pelagic individuals at the end of the experiment. However, littoral individuals lost more lipids and had lower muscle protein content than pelagic fish at the end of the experiment. The pectoral fin was longer in littoral individuals than in pelagic ones. Furthermore, the biochemical discriminant scores of individuals were marginally correlated to those of morphology. Based on a comparison of their proximate tissue composition, our results suggest that trophic diversification is adaptive in brook charr because littoral individuals exhibited lower physiological performance than pelagic ones when restricted to feeding in the pelagic zones. In addition, our results support that morphological descriptors are related to physiological performance. This study is one of the first field attempts to relate differences in trophic morphology of a fish species to physiological performance.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References cited
Alanara, A. 1994. The effect of temperature, dietary energy content and reward level on the demand feeding activity of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Aquaculture 126: 349–359.
Bourke, P, P. Magnan & M.A. Rodriguez. 1997. Individual variations in habitat use and morphology in brook charr. J. Fish Biol. 51: 783–794.
Bourke, P., P. Magnan & M.A. Rodriguez. 1999. Phenotypic responses of lacustrine brook charr in relation to the intensity of interspecific competition. Evol. Ecol. 13: 19–31.
Cho, C.Y. & Si. Kaushik. 1990. Nutritional energetics in fish: protein and energy utilization in rainbow trout. World Rev. Anim. Nutr. 61: 132–172
Dynes, J., P. Magnais, L. Bernatchez & MA. Rodriguez. 1999. Genetic and morphological variation between two forms of lacustrine brook chaff, Salvelinus fontinalis. J. Fish Biol. 54: 955–972.
Ehlinger, T.J. 1990. Habitat choice and phenotype-limited feeding efficiency in bluegill: individual differences and trophic polymorphism. Ecology 71: 886–896.
Bast, P. & P. Magnan. 1987. The effect of locomotor activity on the growth of brook charr, Salvelinus fontinalis Mitchill. Can. J. Zool. 65: 843–846.
Fauconneau, B. 1985. Protein synthesis and protein deposition in fish, pp. 97–117. In: C.B. Cowey, A.M. Mackie & J.B. Bell (ed.) Nutrition Feeding in Fish, Academic Press, London.
Flemming, LA., B. Jonsson & M.R. Gross. 1994. Phenotypic divergence of sea-ranched, farmed, and wild salmon. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 51: 2808–2824.
Gatz, A.J., Jr. 1979. Community organisation in fishes as indicated by morphological features. Ecology 60: 711–718.
Guillou, A., P. Soucy, M. Khalil & L. Adambounou. 1995. Effects of dietary vegetables and marine lipid on growth, muscle fatty acid composition and organoleptic quality of flesh of brook chaff (Salvelinus fontinalis). Aquaculture 136: 351–362.
Héroux, D. 1998. Mécanismes impliqués dans le déplacement de niche alimentaire de l’omble de fontaine, Salvelinus fontinalis, clans les lacs du plateau Laurentien. Ph.D. Thesis, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal. 116 pp.
Jobling, M. 1994a. Fish bioenergetics. Chapman & Hall, London. 326 pp.
Jobling, M. 1994b. Environmental biology of fishes. Chapman & Hall, London. 455 pp.
ICuliry, B. & L.F. Marcus. 1977. Bivariate linear models in biometry. Syst. Zool. 26: 201–209.
Legendre, P. & L. Legendre. 1998. Numerical ecology, 2nd ed. Developments in Environmental Modelling, Elsevier, Amsterdam. 853 pp.
Magnan, P. & G.J. Fitzgerald. 1983. Age scalaire et otholite de l’omble de fontaine (Salvelinus fontinalis): comparaison et interprétation des faux annuli. Nat. canadien 110: 149–154. Malmquist, H.J., S.S. Snorrason, S. Skillason, B. Jonsson, O.T. Sandlund & P.M. J6nasson. 1992. Diet differentiation in polymorphic Artie chaff in Thingvallavatn, Iceland. J. Anim. Ecol. 61: 21–35.
Marchand, F. 2001. Facteurs biotiques et abiotiques influençant l’activité et les coins énergétiques associés à l’ alimentation chez les juveniles (1+) de l’omble de fontaine (Salvelinus fontinalis). Ph.D. Thesis, Université du Quebec à Montreal, Montréal. 170 pp.
Meyer, A. 1989. Cost of morphological specialization: feeding performance of the two morphs in the trophically polymorphic cichlid fish, Cichlasoma citrinellum. Oecologia 80: 431–436.
Miglays, I. & M. Jobling. 1989. The effects of feeding regime on proximate body composition and patterns of energy deposition in juvenile Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus. J. Fish Biol. 35: 1–11.
Pigeon, D., A. Chouinard & L. Bematchez. 1997. Multiple modes of speciation involved in parallel evolution of sympatric dwarf and normal morphotypes of lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis, Salinonidae ). Evolution 51: 196–205.
Reznick, D.N. & B Braun 1987. Fat cycling in the mosquitofish (Gcunbusia affinis): fat storage as reproductive adaptation. Oecologia 73: 401–413.
Robinson, B.W. & D.S. Wilson. 1994. Character release and displacement in fishes: a neglected literature. Amer. Nat. 144: 596–627.
Robinson, B.W. & D.S. Wilson. 1996. Genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity in a trophically polymorphic population of pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus). Evol. Ecol. 10: 631–652.
Robinson, B.W., D.S. Wilson & G.O. Shea. 1996. Trade-offs of ecological specialization: an intraspecific comparison of pumpkinseed sunfish phenotypes. Ecology 77: 170–178.
Schluter, D. 1995. Adaptive radiation in sticklebacks: tradeoffs in feeding performance and growth. Ecology 76: 82–90.
Schluter, D. 1996. Ecological causes of adaptive radiation. Amer. Nat. 148: S40 — S63.
Schluter, D. & J.D. McPhail. 1993. Character displacement and replicate adaptive radiation. Trends Ecol. Evol. 8: 197–200. Shearer, K.D. 1994. Factors affecting the proximate composition of cultured fishes with emphasis on salmonids. Aquaculture 119: 63–88.
Sktilason, S. & T.B. Smith. 1995. Resource polymorphisms in vertebrates. Trends Ecol. Evol. 10: 366–370.
Skdlason, S., S.S. Snorrason, D. Ota & D.L.G. Noakes. 1993. Genetically based differences in foraging behaviour among sympatric morphs of arctic charr ( Pisces: Salmonidae). Anim. Behav. 45: 1179–1192.
Snorrason, S.S., S. Skillason, B. Jonsson, HJ. Malmquist, P.M. J6nasson, O.T. Sandlund & T. Lindern. 1994. Trophic specialization in Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus (Pisces: Salmonidae): morphological divergence and ontogenetic niche shifts. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 52: 1–18.
Taylor, E.B. & P. Bentzen. 1993a. Evidence for multiple origins and sympatric divergence of trophic ecotypes in smelt (Osmerus) in northeastern North America. Evolution 47: 813–832.
Taylor, E.B. & P. Bentzen. 1993b. Molecular genetic evidence for reproductive isolation between sympatric populations of smelt (Osmerus) in Lake Utopia, south-western New Brunswick, Canada. Mol. Ecol. 2: 345–357.
Thorpe, J.E. & C.Y. Cho. 1995. Minimising waste through bioenergetically and behaviourally based feeding strategies. Water Sei. Technol. 31: 29–40.
Venue, H. & P. Magnan. 1995. The impact of intra-and interspecific interactions on young-of-the-year brook charr, in temperate lakes. J. Fish Biol. 46: 669–686.
Wainwright, P.C. 1996. Ecological explanation through functional morphology: the feeding biology of sunfishes. Ecology 77: 1336–1343.
Webb, P.W. 1984. Body form, locomotion and foraging in aquatic vertebrates. Amer. Zool. 24: 107–120.
Wilkinson, L. 1998. SYSTAT 8.0 Statistics. SYSTAT, Inc., Evanston. 1086 pp.
Wimberger, P.H. 1994. Trophic polymorphisms, plasticity, and speciation in vertebrates. pp. 19–43. In: D.J. Stouder & K. Fresh (ed.) Advances in Fish Foraging Theory and Ecology, Volume 18, Belle Baruch Library in Marine Science, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia.
Winemiller, K.O. 1991. Ecomorphological diversification in lowland freshwater fish assemblages from five biotic regions. Ecol. Monogr. 61: 343–365.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Proulx, R., Magnan, P. (2002). Physiological performance of two forms of lacustrine brook charr, Salvelinus fontinalis, in the open-water habitat. In: Magnan, P., Audet, C., Glémet, H., Legault, M., Rodríguez, M.A., Taylor, E.B. (eds) Ecology, behaviour and conservation of the charrs, genus Salvelinus . Developments in environmental biology of fishes, vol 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1352-8_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1352-8_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6088-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-1352-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive