Morphological diversity among Capoeta trutta populations along in three western rivers of Iran

There are different ways to identify different populations of a species, one of them isto study the morphological and Numerical traits. In 2010, a total number of 54samples of Capoeta trutta were collected from the river Kangir siahgel from Elam(14 samples), Gamasiab from Kermanshah (30 samples) and Cham nahesht fromKurdistan (10 samples) were collected. Morphological characteristics wereconverted before statistical analysis to remove allometric growth influence.Canonical variates analysis (CVA) showed that 3 populations of Capoeta trutta areentirely distinct (Wilk s lambda=0.021, p<0.001). According to the results, the firstand the second axes are included, totaling 100% of the total variance (factorcoefficient greater than 0.7). The first axis with 74 percent of total variance includedhead width, head height, eye distance to the gill cover, eye diameter, length of dorsalfin base, dorsal fin height, length of ventral fin base, ventral fin height, anal finbeginning to tip of snout and scales number ventral fin beginning to lateral line andloading the traits such as anal fin height, pectoral fin height, dorsal fin height,minimum of body height, head height, height depth eye center in vertical( on secondaxis with 26 percent of total variance separated studied populations significantly.Observed discrimination may be due to considerable geographic distance amonglocalities. At the population level, morphological traits have major effect on interpopulationvariation and phenotypic plasticity.

Keywords:

Capoeta trutta , 48T phenotypic plasticity , Morphometry