Ecomorphological diversification in lowland freshwater fish assemblages from five biotic regions

Journal Article · Sun Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · Ecological Monographs; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2307/2937046· OSTI ID:5892466

Winemiller, K O ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States) Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville (United States)

This study investigates the relationships among species diversity, community structure, and convergent evolution among divergent fish faunas. The author examined 30 morphological features related to the ecology of the dominant fish species from lowland stream and backwater habitats in five widely separated geographic regions: nearctic Alaska, temperate North America, Central America, South America, and tropical Africa. The analysis supports the thesis that species interactions are important determinants of community morphological features, particularly in species-rich tropical regions. Relative to assemblages in the other four regions, the two Alaskan fish assemblages were hyperdispersed within a comparatively small morphological space. The Alaskan fish assemblages probably formed via geologically recent, and perhaps repeated, colonizations of polar freshwaters by species with evolutionary histories in more diverse southern and coastal fish faunas. The author interprets evidence of greater niche diversification at lower latitudes within a habitat type as being derived primarily from the influence of competition and predation, whereas differences between habitats within regions seems to be associated with the combined effects of biotic interactions and differences in habitat volume and heterogeneity. Even though different regions within ecomorphological space were dominated by different fish orders, numerous ecomorphological convergences and several one-for-one ecological equivalents were identified within different biotic regions.

• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5892466
• Journal Information: Ecological Monographs; (United States), Vol. 61:4; ISSN 0012-9615
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
FISHES
ECOLOGY
AFRICA
ALASKA
BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
CENTRAL AMERICA
COMPETITION
FRESH WATER
HABITAT
MORPHOLOGY
NORTH AMERICA
SOUTH AMERICA
SPECIES DIVERSITY
TEMPERATE ZONES
TROPICAL REGIONS
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
LATIN AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
USA
VERTEBRATES
WATER
540310* - Environment
Aquatic- Basic Studies- (1990-)