Fish-Eating Herring Evolved in Just 8,000 Years, Challenging Biodiversity Theory
Atlantic herring spawned a new predatory species in the Baltic Sea without geographic separation, suggesting that available ecological space—not isolation—drives evolutionary diversity. The finding reshapes how scientists and resource managers predict species adaptation to environmental change, with implications for fisheries management and conservation strategy in rapidly changing ecosystems.
Originaltitel: Evolution of fast-growing piscivorous herring in the young Baltic Sea
<p>The circumstances under which species diversify to genetically distinct lineages is a fundamental question in biology. Atlantic herring (<em>Clupea harengus</em>) is an extremely abundant zooplanktivorous species that is subdivided into multiple ecotypes that differ regarding spawning time and genetic adaption to local environmental conditions such as temperature, salinity, and light conditions. Here we show using whole genome analysis that multiple populations of piscivorous (fish-eating) herring have evolved sympatrically after the colonization of the brackish Baltic Sea within the last 8000 years postglaciation. The piscivorous ecotype grows faster, and is much larger and less abundant than the zooplanktivorous Baltic herring. Lesions of the gill rakers in the piscivorous ecotype indicated incomplete adaptation to a fish diet. This niche expansion of herring in the young Baltic Sea, with its paucity of piscivorous species, suggests that empty niche space is more important than geographic isolation for the evolution of biodiversity.</p>