Home – Home – Jornals – Contemporary Problems of Ecology 2021 number 1

The body shape variability of perch populations in the mountain and semi-mountain reaches of the Loz’va river basin and adjacent lakes Prostaptur and Elesinskoe (Northern Urals) was investigated by geometric morphometrics using box truss method. 23 distances between homologous landmarks were used to describe the body shape variability of fish. About 33 % of the total shape variance in perch is due to the perch inhabiting the gradient of the locations along the river. The spatial variability of the perch body shape in different river reaches 1.3 times exceeded the scale in shape variability which is associated with river and lakes habitats and 1.6 times exceeded the scale of the morphological shift in perch in the lake Prostaptur. A low intra-group diversity of body shape was identified for the perch population in the lakes with a periodic oxygen-deficient in water. The perch from the river with their strong turbulence of mountain currents, variable water-levels of the watercourse and water flow paths have an increased intra-group body shape diversity. It may indirectly indicate some ontogeny change in the individuals from the mountain river, related to the formation of a wide range of ontogenetic trajectories and suggests a greater perch adaptation to periodic low dissolved oxygen in the lakes than to changes in the hydrodynamic regime of the mountain river.