Salvelinus spp

• Main Authors: Alexander, Timothy, Seehausen, Ole
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology 2021
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Chordata; Actinopterygii; Salmoniformes; Salmonidae; Salvelinus; Iceland; Siberia
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5776978; http://treatment.plazi.org/id/039187D59BA8BBDFFE5F7715771E8AA0

The perialpine lakes of Switzerland form the southern geographic range limit of the genus Salvelinus (lake char). Officially, one species of Salvelinus is currently native to Switzerland according to federal law (VBGF): Salvelinus umbla. This species naturally occurs in all deep perialpine lakes north of the Alps, and was introduced into many alpine and southern perialpine lakes, beginning in medieval times and extensively in the 19 th – 20 th century. Two additional endemic species of Salvelinus once occurred in Switzerland: a deep-water adapted (profundal) species in each of lakes Constance (Salvelinus profundus) and Neuchatel (Salvelinus neocomensis). These species were considered to have been driven extinct by the negative effects of lake eutrophication. [9] The genus Salvelinus is renowned for its diversity of ecologically distinct forms in northern latitude lakes, for example Iceland, Scandinavia and Siberia, often with multiple forms occurring within the same lake. In several cases, these forms have been shown to be genetically distinct sympatric species. A considerable diversity of forms also occurs in some deep perialpine lakes in Switzerland.The Swiss naturalist Konrad Gessner already described three forms of Salvelinus in 1575 (Figure 48). Gessner mostly focused on the strong size differences between the forms, and named them accordingly:Umbla minor, Umbla major, and Umbla maxima. However, with the exception of the two profundal species of lakes Constance and Neuchatel, the diversity of Salvelinus has not been studied since the birth of modern taxonomy. [80] [80] [13] A large variety of forms can still be found among Salvelinus in some Swiss lakes (Figure 49). A widespread “generalist” form lives in many smaller lakes, as well as in some larger lakes as the single known surviving form (such as Geneva, Zug and Zurich; Figure 50), and often has a bright red belly. Four other ecologically specialized forms 5 can be distinguished in several lakes: limnetic (living in open water), benthic (near the lake ...