coregonus fontanae

Coregonus fontanae is highly dwarfed, and is believed to be the world's smallest type of cisco.{{cite conference |author1=Freyhof, Jörg |author2=Schaefer, Christian | title = Lebensraum, Biogeographie und Kulturgeschichte, ihr Einfluss auf die Fischartendiversität | conference = Workshop des Leibniz-Institutes für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei (IGB) und des Fördervereins "Naturlandschaft Stechlin und Menzer Heide" | publisher = Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei | date = October 25–27, 2002 | language=German|url = http://www.igb-berlin.de/abt4/mitarbeiter/freyhof/downloads/Stechlinforum.pdf|access-date=12 December 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040122003546/http://www.igb-berlin.de/abt4/mitarbeiter/freyhof/downloads/Stechlinforum.pdf|archive-date=22 January 2004}}{{Cite news | last = Owen | first = James | title = 57 New Freshwater Fish Species Found in Europe | newspaper = National Geographic News | date = November 14, 2007 | url = http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071114-new-fish.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071117133139/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071114-new-fish.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = November 17, 2007 | access-date = 15 November 2009}} The maximum length recorded for this species is {{convert|12.6|cm|in}}, and {{convert|10|cm|in}} is believed to be a typical size.{{FishBase|genus=Coregonus|species=fontanae|year=2009|month=October}}

Stechlin ciscoes are silvery pink in body color, with a bluish-brown back and glassy fins.

The Stechlin cisco is taxonomically distinguished from the vendace and the other dwarfed cisco species by its low number of lateral line scales (69–77), by some bodily proportions, by the length of its gill rakers, by its slow growth, by its glassy fins, and by its spring spawning season.

The existence of two forms of vendace-like whitefish in Lake Stechlin was noted by G. Bauch in 1953 and A. K. Awand and colleagues in the 1990s. During Maurice Kottelat and Jörg Freyhof's survey of the freshwater fish of Europe, the taxonomic status of the deviating form was more closely examined, and Freyhof with M. Schulz described it as a separate species on the basis of its spring spawning season and small size. They named it in honor of German literary figure Theodor Fontane, whose last completed novel, Der Stechlin, used Lake Stechlin's landscape as a backdrop.

The Stechlin cisco represents the extreme of a pattern of cisco adaptive radiations into dwarf, spring-spawning, cold-tolerant forms in northern European lakes after the last glacial period 12,000 years ago. The results of this evolution in various lakes were formerly considered to be single species, Coregonus trybomi, but mitochondrial DNA, allozyme and microsatellite DNA studies show that the spring-spawning populations in various lakes each evolved independently from the vendace.{{Cite journal | last = Schulz | first = M. |author2=Freyhof, J. |author3=Saint-Laurent, R. |author4=Østbye, K. |author5=Mehner, T. |author6=Bernatchez, L. | title = Evidence for independent origin of two spring-spawning ciscoes (Salmoniformes: Coregonidae) in Germany | journal = Journal of Fish Biology | volume = 68 | issue = A |pages = 119–135 | date = March 13, 2006 | url = http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118560058/abstract | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130105143027/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118560058/abstract | url-status = dead | archive-date = January 5, 2013 | issn = 0022-1112 | doi = 10.1111/j.0022-1112.2006.01039.x | bibcode = 2006JFBio..68..119S | url-access = subscription }}{{cite journal|author=Thomas Mehner|author2= Stefan Palm|author3= Bo Delling|author4= Juha Karjalainen|author5= Jolanta Kiełpińska|author6= Asja Vogt |author7= Jörg Freyhof|title=Genetic relationships between sympatric and allopatric Coregonus ciscoes in North and Central Europe|journal=BMC Ecol Evol |volume=21|issue= 186 |year=2021|page= 186|doi=10.1186/s12862-021-01920-8|doi-access= free|pmid= 34615463|pmc= 8496053}} Another similar pair is found in the German lake Breiter Luzin, {{convert|30|km|mi}} from the Großer Stechlinsee, involving C. albula and Coregonus lucinensis.{{FishBase genus | genus = Coregonus | year = 2009 | month = November}} Genetic differences between the sympatric morphs within each German lake, and between populations of different lakes, are minimal.

This species is restricted to the Großer Stechlinsee (also called Lake Stechlin), near the town of Stechlin in the north of Brandenburg state in Germany. Lake Stechlin is a deep, cool, chalky, oligotrophic lake of recent glacial origin. Lake Stechlin has an area of {{convert|4.3|km2|sqmi}} and reaches a maximum depth of {{convert|68|m|ft}}{{Cite journal | last = Schulz | first = M. |author2=Freyhof, J. | title = Coregonus fontanae, a new spring-spawning cisco from Lake Stechlin, northern Germany (Salmoniformes: Coregonidae). | journal = Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters | volume = 14 | issue = 3 | pages = 209–216 | date = October 2002 | url = http://www.igb-berlin.de/abt4/mitarbeiter/freyhof/downloads/Coregonus.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040121235518/http://www.igb-berlin.de/abt4/mitarbeiter/freyhof/downloads/Coregonus.pdf|archive-date=21 January 2004}}{{Cite web | author = International Lake Environment Committee | title = Lake Stechlin | work = World Lake Database | url = http://www.ilec.or.jp/database/eur/eur-31.html | access-date = 18 November 2009 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110523152750/http://www.ilec.or.jp/database/eur/eur-31.html | archive-date = 23 May 2011 }} and a mean depth of {{convert|22.8|m|ft}}. In Lake Stechlin, this species and the vendace (Coregonus albula) make up 95 percent of the fish biomass.{{cite thesis|last=Helland|first=Ingebord Palm|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241668847|title=Ecology of a sympatric pair of coregonid fish: Species interactions and temperature|date=2008|issn=1501-7710|degree=PhD|via=ResearchGate}} Lake Stechlin is part of Stechlin-Ruppiner Land Nature Park. The IUCN Red List considers the species to be Critically Endandgered.

Stechlin ciscoes feed primarily on cladocerans and copepods. They are found throughout the lake, though they are generally pelagic in cool, deep water. They differ little in dietary preferences from the sympatric vendace, but they differ substantially in habitat.{{cite journal | last = Ohlberger | first = Jan | author2 = Mehner, Thomas | author3 = Staaks, Georg | author4 = Hölker, Franz | title = Is ecological segregation in a pair of sympatric coregonines supported by divergent feeding efficiencies? | journal = Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences | volume = 65 | issue = 10 | pages = 2105–2113 | year = 2008 | url = http://rparticle.web-p.cisti.nrc.ca/rparticle/AbstractTemplateServlet?journal=cjfas&volume=65&year=2008&issue=10&msno=f08-120&calyLang=eng | doi = 10.1139/F08-120 | bibcode = 2008CJFAS..65.2105O | url-access = subscription }}{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} They live to be four to five years old, and spawn in the spring, unlike the vendace. They have been found to have a reduced metabolic rate as an adaptation to their habitat.{{Cite journal | last = Ohlberger | first = Jan |author2=Mehner, T. |author3=Staaks, G. |author4=Hölker, F. | title = Temperature-related physiological adaptations promote ecological divergence in a sympatric species pair of temperate freshwater fish, Coregonus spp. | journal = Functional Ecology | volume = 22 | issue = 3 | pages = 501–508 | date = March 12, 2008 | issn = 0269-8463 | doi = 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2008.01391.x| doi-access = free | bibcode = 2008FuEco..22..501O }}

{{Reflist|2}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071110033657/http://www.fv-berlin.de/pm_archiv/2003/pm17-11-2003_2.html Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. news article: Fontane zurück am Stechlin] {{in lang|de}}

{{Whitefish}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q553646}}

fontanae

Category:Endemic fauna of Germany

Category:Fish described in 2003

Category:Taxa named by Jörg Freyhof

Category:Freshwater fish of Europe