Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2019

Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E1

Tales from the field: drones, boats, underwater cameras and scuba, the tools to studying speciation

Höfundar / Authors: Kalina H. Kapralova (1), Jónína Herdís Ólafsdóttir (2), Fia Finn (1), Lieke Ponsioen (1), Quentin Horta-Lacueva (1), Jóhann Garðar Þorbjörnsson (2), Sigurður S Snorrason (1)

Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: 1 University of Iceland, Life and Environmental Sciences, 2. Hafrannsóknastofnun - rannsókna- og ráðgjafarstofnun hafs og vatna

Kynnir / Presenter: Kalina H. Kapralova

The Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) of Thingvallavatn is ideally suited for studies of adaptive divergence and evolution of reproductive barriers: i) it has young evolutionary history, and ii) it has diverged into four morphs with distinct variation in life history characteristics, behaviour and trophic morphology, suggesting rapid adaptive diversification, possibly followed by or causing build-up of reproductive barriers. The morphs differ largely in morphology, life history characteristics, behaviour and ontogeny. Two of the smallest morphs a planktivorous (PL) and a small benthic charr (SB) partly overlap in their timing of spawning and appear to be sharing the same spawning grounds, yet, they are genetically distinct. The central hypothesis underlying our investigation is that the reproductive isolation between SB and PL charr is partly due to differences in the exact timing of spawning (i.e. time of the day), precise spawning location and/or mating behaviour. To address our hypothesis we are using tools ranging from gill nets, drones, boats, underwater cameras and scuba diving to genotyping and laboratory experiments. In this presentation I will show some exciting preliminary findings and discuss the difficulties of studying pre-zygotic barriers to reproductive isolation of a north temperate fish species having the audacity of mating in the middle of the night in October in Iceland.