Size and shape variability of bones in perch Perca fluviatilis Linnaeus, 1758 in the storage reservoirs of liquid radioactive wastes
V. Yu. Baranov
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of RAS, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Keywords: perch, variability, skeleton, geometric morphometrics, radioactive and chemical contamination, the Southern Urals
Abstract
The size and shape variability of three bones of the river perch from two adjacent reservoirs in the upper reaches of the river Techa (the Southern Urals) - Techa storage reservoir cascade of liquid radioactive wastes contaminated with technogenic pollution (over 50 years) (TRC) and control lake Irtyash was studied using geometric morphometrics methods. Perch bones in adjacent populations differed in shape and characterized by similar growth rates. The range of sex variability of the bone shape was on average 5.4 times less than the intergroup differences of perch population. It was found out that with age the frontal bone growth has slows down, the praeoperculum growth does not change, and the cleithrum growth increases. The sexual dimorphism in bone sizes of older age fish and low level of sex differences in the shape of frontal bone and praeoperculum in the Techa cascade population was revealed. The obtained data characterize a high degree of phenotypic plasticity of the perch and adaptive restructuring of its morphogenesis associated with local environment of technogenic reservoirs.
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