Frequencies of lateral morphs in different age classes of the flounder Platichthys flesus (Pleuronectidae) from the White Sea

P.N. Yershov, G.V. Fuks and V.M. Khaitov

Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS, 2022, 326(4): 243–249 · https://doi.org/10.31610/trudyzin/2022.326.4.243

Full text

Abstract

In the populations of the European flounder Platichthys flesus (Linnaeus, 1758), the proportions of left- and right-sided individuals vary widely, and possible causes of this variation remain little explored. The hypothesis of ecological segregation of phenotypical morphs in the European flounder relies primarily on observations of certain differences in morphology and foraging performance between the left- and right-sided individuals. The flounders of different sex and size/age, however, can differ in the character of biotic associations with the environment and other hydrobionts. We have examined the interaction of size/age and sex of the fish with the probability of encountering left-sided individuals in 4 populations of the European flounder from the White Sea basin. The results of the study have shown that the proportion of the reversed individuals did not differ among the flounders of various size and age in all the populations studied. The proportion of the left- and right-sided morphs in different size-age classes in all investigated populations did not depend on the sex of the fish. Revealed interpopulation diversity of phenotypic composition of flounder from the White Sea is not connected with the size/age and sex structure of compared samples.

Key words

morph frequencies variation, Platichthys flesus, Pleuronectidae, population polymorphism, White Sea

Submitted July 29, 2022 · Accepted September 16, 2022 · Published December 23, 2022

References

Bergstrom C.A. 2007. Morphological evidence of correlational selection and ecological segregation between dextral and sinistral forms in a polymorphic flatfish, Platichthys stellatus. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 20: 1104–1114. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2006.01290

Brey T. 2001. Population dynamics in benthic invertebrates. A virtual handbook. Version 01.2. http://www.thomas-brey.de/science/virtualhandbook

Christensen J.M. 1964. Burning of otoliths, a technique for age determination of soles and other fish. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 29: 73–81. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/29.1.73

Chilton D.E. and Beamish R.J. 1982. Age determination methods for fishes studied by the groundfish program at the Pacific Biological Station. Canadian Special Publication of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 60, 102 p.

Dietrich R. 2009. Populationsökologie der Plattfische (Familie Pleuronectidae) im Küsten- und Ästuarbereich des Weißen Meeres. Dissertation, Institut für Biowissenschaften der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Rostock, 177 p. http://rosdok.uni-rostock.de/resolve/id/rosdok_diss-hab_0000000308

Duncker G. 1900. Variation und Asymmetrie bei Pleuronectes flesus L. Wissenschaftliche Meereuntersuchungen, 3: 335–404.

Fornbacke M., Gombrii M. and Lundberg A. 2002. Sidedness frequencies in the flounder Platichthys flesus (Pleuronectiformes) along a biogeographical cline. Sarsia, 87: 392–395. https://doi.org/10.1080/0036482021000155835

Forrester C.R. 1969. Sinistrality in Platichthys stellatus off British Columbia. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 26: 191–196. https://doi.org/10.1139/f69-023

Fuks G.V. 2015. Method of determining the age of the river flounder Platichthys flesus in the otoliths in the north-western regions of the Russian arctic seas. Educatio, X(17): 27–30. [In Russian].

Hubbs C.L. and Hubbs L.C. 1945. Bilateral asymmetry and bilateral variation in fishes. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, 30: 229–310.

Mikelsaar N. 1958. Method of equalized scales. Gidrobiologicheskie issledovaniya (Tartu: Izdatelstvo Akademii Nauk ESSR), 1: 286–312. [In Russian].

Orcutt H.G. 1950. The life history of the starry flounder Platichthys stellatus (Pallаs). California Department of Fish and Game, Fish Bulletin, 78: 1–64. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3c74b3bj

Russo T., Pulcini D., Costantini D., Pedreschi D., Palamara E., Boglione C., Cataudella S., Scardi M. and Mariani S. 2012. “Right” or “wrong”? Insights into the ecology of sidedness in European flounder, Platichthys flesus. Journal of Morphology, 273: 337–346. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.11027

R Core Team. 2020. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. http://www.r-project.org/index.html

Semushin A.V., Fuks G.V. and Shilova N.A. 2015. Flatfishes of the White Sea: New data on the biology of the Arctic flounder Liopsetta glacialis, European flounder Platichthys flesus, and Сommon dab Limanda limanda. Journal of Ichthyology, 55: 527–539. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032945215030121

Shatunovsky M.I. 1964. Materials on systematics of European flounder Pleuronectes flesus from the White Sea. Vestnik Moskovskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta, 1: 32–38. [In Russian].

Sych N.S. 1930. Pleuronectes flesus of the Barents and White Seas. Trudy Nauchnogo Instituta Rybnogo Khozyaistva, 5: 89–116. [In Russian].

Townsend L.D. 1937. Geographical variation and correlation in Pacific flounders. Copeia, 2: 92–103. https://doi.org/10.2307/1436950

Yershov P.N., Fuks G.V. and Khaitov V.M. 2022. Spatial variation in the frequency of left-sided morph in European flounder Platichthys flesus (Linnaeus, 1758) from the marginal Arctic (the White Sea). Diversity, 14, 1004. https://doi.org/10.3390/d14111004

Zuur A., Ieno E., Walker N., Saveliev A. and Smith G. 2009. Mixed effects models and extensions in ecology with R. Spring Science and Business Media, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-87458-6