Cisco diversity in a historical drainage of glacial Lake Algonquin

Abstract

Cisco (Coregonus artedi (sensu lato) Lesueur, 1818) forms matching in appearance to Blackfin Cisco from the Laurentian Great Lakes occur in four lakes in Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada, a historical drainage of glacial Lake Algonquin (precursor of lakes Michigan and Huron). Their occurrence may represent colonization from glacial Lake Algonquin drainage patterns 13 000 calibrated years BP or independent evolution within each lake. Gill-raker numbers, temperature at capture depth during lake stratification, and hurdle models of habitat distribution are summarized. Blackfin (nigripinnis-like) in the four lakes had higher gill-raker numbers than artedi-like cisco captured in nearby lakes or within the same lake. Two lakes have a bimodal gill-raker distribution that indicate co-occurrence of two forms. Blackfin occupied the hypolimnion with a peak depth distribution at 20–25 m. Maximum depth for blackfin was 35–40 m. The presence of the opossum shrimp (Mysis diluviana Audzijonyte and Väinölä, 2005) appears necessary for the occurrence of cisco diversity in lakes but not sufficient in all cases. The presence of two forms of cisco in at least two lakes points to the possibility of the colonization hypothesis or the ecological speciation hypothesis as accounting for this phenomenon. Genetic analysis is needed to determine which of these hypotheses best accounts for the occurrence of blackfin in Algonquin Park.