Morphological variation in round goby, Neogobius melanostomus (Actinopterygii, Gobiidae) from the Black Sea
R.E. Belogurova
Section: Population ecology
The article is focused on the morphological variation in the round goby, Neogobius melanostomus (Pallas, 1814) from the western coast of the Crimean Peninsula (Black Sea). A total of thirty-five plastic and seven meristic characters were measured in similar-sized males of the round goby. On average, gobies from the eastern part of the Karkinitsky Bay (the water area of the Bakalskaya Spit and the Samarchik Bay) were larger than those from the other two areas (SLavr = 109.2±0.9 mm and SLavr = 111.0±1.9 mm, respectively), which probably indicates the best trophic conditions in these areas. Gobies from the
Donuzlav Lyman were smaller by the average values of the standard length (SLavr = 87.6±1.3 mm). The differences between average values of the quantitative characteristics of compared samples were statistically significant. It was found that the heterogeneity of the ecological conditions of the habitats made it possible to form various variations of characters in the round goby. It was revealed that at least three population groups of round goby were formed near the western coast of Crimea: one of them was formed by fish from the Donuzlav estuary, the second – by gobies from the Samarchik Bay, the third – by a group of fish from the water area of the Bakalskaya Spit and Yarylgachskaya Bay. As the analysis of the correlations between the plastic characters and the values of the coordinates of the two canonical variables has shown, practically all the studied measurements ensure the discrimination of the samples of the round goby, however, the best discrimination along the first canonical axis (correlation coefficients more than 0.5) is provided by measurements on the body associated with the location of the pectoral, pelvic and anal fins, as well as the parameters of the jaw (length of the upper and lower jaws, distance between the eye and the angle of the mouth, and the width of the mouth). Such differences in the structure of the species population are associated, among other things, with the transformations of the fish population in the eastern part of the Karkinitsky Bay and the Donuzlav Lyman, caused by human economic activity.
Keywords: Round goby, Black Sea, plastic and meristic characters, variability, population
Article published in number 1 for 2023 DOI: 10.25750/1995-4301-2023-1-125-132
ISSN 1995-4301
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