The whitefish species we sampled spanned a variety of six completely different ecomorphs that differ of their morphology, together with physique size, depth, and feeding morphology, in addition to spawning depth and time, and food regimen (sampled species in every lake and the ecomorphs to which these species belong had been plotted in accordance with their distribution; Fig. 1a, b). Species on this examine had been assigned to every ecomorph primarily based on their phenotype by whitefish taxonomic consultants and co-authors Oliver M. Selz and Ole Seehausen. The ‘Balchen’ whitefish ecomorph is characterised by large-bodied shallow spawning species which predominantly feed on benthic macroinvertebrates. Conversely, the ‘Albeli’ ecomorph is characterised by small species which spawn deeper (intermediate depth to very deep) and feed on zooplankton within the pelagic zone of lakes. The third ecomorph is the ‘Felchen’ kind, which develop to bigger sizes than the ‘Albeli’ ecomorph however not as massive because the ‘Balchen’, feed on zooplankton, and feed and spawn from an intermediate depth to very deep. Along with these three widespread ecomorphs, three less-widespread ecomorphs happen in three or fewer lake techniques. These embody two variations of profundal ecomorphs, a ‘benthic-profundal’ species, C. profundus from Lake Thun (a further, now extinct, ‘benthic-profundal’ species C. gutturosus was additionally as soon as current in Lake Constance), which have few gill-rakers however spawn at intermediate to nice depth and a ‘pelagic-profundal’ species, C. nobilis in Lake Lucerne, which spawn deep however have a excessive variety of gill-rakers. The ultimate ecomorph we sampled had been the ‘large-pelagic’, and included the species C. wartmanni from Lake Constance, C. acrinasus from Lake Thun, and C. suspensus from Lake Lucerne, which, though they’re large-bodied, have a excessive gill-raker depend and feed predominantly on zooplankton. C. wartmanni has a well-described pelagic spawning behaviour, whereas the opposite two ‘large-pelagic’ species are to date much less effectively characterised in that respect. A full breakdown of the fish included on this examine, their gill-raker counts, standard-length measurements, and the ecomorph task of every species might be seen in Supplementary Knowledge 1.
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