A growth comparison of allopatric and sympatric whitefish

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to see if growth and size at maturity were different between a LSR-whitefish morph living in allopatry and one living in sympatry with the DR-morph. Here, I hypothesized that somatic growth in monomorphic LSR-whitefish would be greater. Further, that the age at maturation would be lower for the monomorphic LSR-whitefish than that of the polymorphic LSR-whitefish. As a third research question I wanted to se if the DR-whitefish would have a faster initial growth rate, smaller body size and earlier maturation than the sympatric LSR-whitefish. By using the von Bertalanffy growth function and a logistic regression I expect to answer these research questions.