Article Sidebar

Download
Statistic
Read Counter : 116

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Main Article Content

Abstract

Abstract
This study investigates inter-basin geometric morphometric variation in populations of the North Caucasian bleak (Alburnus hohenackeri) across four major hydrological basins in Iran (Caspian, Sistan, Harirud, and Tigris). A total of 849 specimens from 23 rivers were photographed laterally, and 13 anatomical landmarks were digitized and aligned using Procrustes superimposition. Multivariate analyses including PCA, CVA, Procrustes distances, Mahalanobis distances, and cluster analysis were conducted. PCA revealed that the first two components explained about 40% of the total shape variation, with major differences related to head morphology, body depth, mouth position, and caudal peduncle structure. Despite extensive overlap among populations, a relative separation of the Sistan population from the others was observed. CVA highlighted this pattern more clearly, showing a stronger distinction of Sistan, while Caspian and Tigris exhibited the greatest similarity and Harirud occupied an intermediate position. Pairwise Procrustes and Mahalanobis distances were all statistically significant (p < 0.001), with the greatest distances between Sistan and the other basins and the smallest between Caspian and Tigris. Cluster analysis confirmed this pattern by placing Sistan in a distinct branch, grouping Caspian and Tigris together, and positioning Harirud intermediately. These findings indicate that environmental heterogeneity and geographical isolation have driven divergent phenotypic adaptations among A. hohenackeri populations. The study highlights the effectiveness of geometric morphometrics for detecting inter-basin population structure and provides insights valuable for biodiversity conservation and freshwater fishery management.

Keywords

Alburnus hohenackeri Geometric morphometry Principal Component Analysis Canonical Variate Analysis Procrustes analysis

Article Details

License
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The authors transfer the copyrights of their papers to the Iranian Society of Ichthyology. However, the information could be used in accordance with the Creative Commons licence (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

How to Cite
GHOLAMI, S., & KEIVANY, Y. (2025). Inter-basin geometric morphometric comparison of the North Caucasian Bleak (<i>Alburnus hohenackeri</i>) populations in Iran. Iranian Journal of Ichthyology, 12(3), 223–232. https://doi.org/10.22034/iji.v12i3.1083
Download Citation
Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)
BibTeX

References

  1. Abdoli, A. & Naderi, B. 2009. Biodiversity of fishes of the southern basin of the Caspian Sea. Abzian Scientific Publications, Tehran.
  2. Bookstein, F.L. 1991. Morphometric tools for landmark data: geometry and biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  3. Cahyadi, R.; Zakaria, I.J. & Roesma, D.I. 2021. Morphological analysis of Homaloptera gymnogaster Bleeker, 1853 (Family: Balitoridae) from different elevations in Central Sumatra, Indonesia. Iranian Journal of Ichthyology 8(1): 41-51.
  4. Eagderi, S.; Mouludi-Saleh, A.; Esmaeli, H.R.; Sayyadzadeh, G. & Nasri, M. 2022. Freshwater lamprey and fishes of Iran; a revised and updated annotated checklist-2022. Turkish Journal of Zoology 46(6): 500-522.
  5. Esmaeili, H.R.; Mehraban, H.; Abbasi, K.; Keivany, Y. & Coad, B.W. 2017. Review and updated checklist of freshwater fishes of Iran: Taxonomy, distribution and conservation status. Iranian Journal of Ichthyology 4 (Suppl. 1), 1-114.
  6. Gammanpila, M.; Amarasinghe, U. & Wijeyaratne, M. 2017. Morphological correlates with diet of fish assemblages in brush park fisheries of tropical estuaries. Environmental Biology of Fishes 100(10): 1285-1299.
  7. Gholami, S. & Keivany, Y. 2024. Geometric morphometric comparison of northern Caucasian bleak populations (Alburnus hohenackeri) in the Caspian Basin. Taxonomy & Biosystematics 16(59): 41–56.
  8. Gholami, S. & Keivany, Y. 2025. Evaluation of morphological characteristics of the North Caucasian bleak species (Alburnus hohenackeri) in the Harirud basin. Iranian Scientific Fisheries Journal: In press.
  9. Gholami, S.; Keivany, Y. & Jafari-Patkan, A. 2025. Comparing the diversity of northern Caucasian bleak (Alburnus hohenackeri) in Sistan basin. Journal of Fisheries 78(2): 79-90.
  10. Gonzalez-Martinez, A.; De-Pablos-Heredero, C.; González, M.; Rodriguez, J.; Barba, C. & García, A. 2021. Morphological variations of wild populations of Brycon dentex (Characidae, Teleostei) in the Guayas hydrographic basin (Ecuador): the impact of fishing policies and environmental conditions. Animals 11(7): 1901.
  11. Hosseini, N. & Tabatabaei Yazdi, F. 2022. Inter-species study of three species of Gobiidae on the Makran coast of Iran by both geometric and traditional morphometric methods. Iranian Journal of Ichthyology 9(2): 54-66.
  12. Jalili, P.; Eagderi, S. & Keivany, Y. 2015. Body shape comparison of Kura bleak (Alburnus filippii) in Aras and Ahar-Chai rivers using geometric morphometric approach. Research in Zoology 5(1): 20-24.
  13. Keivany, Y.; Nasri, M.; Abbasi, K. & Abdoli, A. 2016. Atlas of Inland Water Fishes of Iran. Iran Department of Environment Press 218 p.
  14. Langerhans, R.B. & Reznick, D.N. 2010. Ecology and evolution of swimming performance in fishes: predicting evolutionary responses to predation. Integrative and Comparative Biology 50(2): 1-22.
  15. Langerhans, R.B.; Layman, C.A.; Langerhans, A.K. & DeWitt, T.J. 2003. Habitat-associated morphological divergence in two Neotropical fish species. Biological Journal of Linnean Society 80: 689-698.
  16. Mariu, A.; Chatha, A.M.M.; Naz, S.; Khan, M.F.; Safdar, W. & Ashraf, I. 2023. Effect of temperature, pH, salinity and dissolved oxygen on fishes. Journal of Zoology and Systematics 1(2): 1-12.
  17. Mohadasi, M.; Shabanipour, N. & Eagderi, S. 2013. Habitat-associated morphological divergence in four Shemaya, Alburnus chalcoides (Actinopterygii: Cyprinidae) populations in the southern Caspian Sea using geometric morphometrics analysis. International Journal of Aquatic Biology 1(2): 82-92.
  18. Mondal, P.; Hoque, M.S.; Rahman, M.A.; Hasan, M.M.; Chakma, S.; Islam, M.S. & Shahjahan, M. 2024. Occurrence, characteristics and distribution of microplastics in commercial marine fishes of the Bay of Bengal. Marine Pollution Bulletin 208: 117020.
  19. Mouludi-Saleh, A. & Keivany, Y. 2019. Comparison of Transcaucasian chub (Squalius turcicus De Filippi, 1865) populations in south-western Caspian Sea basin using geometric morphometric method. Journal of Animal Research (Iranian Journal of Biology) 32(3): 233-243.
  20. Mouludi-Saleh, A.; Eagderi, S. & Poorbagher, H. 2022. Ichthyofauna of the Iranian part of the Sirvan River drainage with the first record of Cobitis avicenna and Oxynoemacheilus euphraticus. International Journal of Aquatic Biology 10(3): 242-253.
  21. Nacua, S.; Torres, M. & Demayo, C. 2010. Landmark-based geometric morphometrics in visualizing body shape dimorphism in the endemic cyprinid, Puntius tumba (Herre, 1924), from Lake Lanao, Philippines. International Conference on Environmental Engineering and Applications, 10–12 September 2010, Singapore, Singapore, pp. 86–90.
  22. Nasri, M.; Eagderi, S.; Farahmand, H. & Nezhadheydari, H. 2019. Interspecific morphological variation among members of the genus Cyprinion Heckel, 1843 (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) in Iran, using landmark-based geometric morphometric technique. Iranian Journal of Ichthyology 6(1): 54-64.
  23. Razavipour, P.; Eagderi, S.; Poorbagher, H.; Javanshir Khooi, A. & Keivany, Y. 2015. Comparative study of morphological characteristics of Tuini fish (Capoeta damascina) in inland water of Iran using geometic morphometric method. Journal of Fisheries 68(1): 79-90.
  24. Rohlf, F.J. & Marcus, L.F. 1993. A revolution morphometrics. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 8(4): 129-132.
  25. Salehi, M.; Mousavi-Sabet, H. & Eagderi, S. 2022. Geometric morphometric analysis of body shape variation in Salmo trutta populations from the Caspian Sea, Namak and Urmia basins, Iran. Iranian Journal of Ichthyology 9(1): 23-31.
  26. Su, G.; Villeger, S. & Brosse, S. 2019. Morphological diversity of freshwater fishes differs between realms, but morphologically extreme species are widespread. Global Ecology and Biogeography 28(2): 211-221.
  27. Turan, C. 2004. Stock identification of Mediterranean horse mackerel (Trachurus mediterraneus) using morphometric and meristic characters. Fisheries Research 67(2): 221-226.
  28. Zelditch, M.; Swiderski, D. & Sheets, H.D. 2012. Geometric morphometrics for biologists: a primer. Academic Press.