Abstract
This work reports for the first time in Spain the presence of the non-native salmonid Alpine charr, usually included into Salvelinus alpinus , but recently revised to Salvelinus umbla . The species was found in a high mountain lake in the Pyrenees belonging to the Garonne catchment (Lake Obago, Val d’Aran, province of Lleida). This is probably not a recent introduction since the presence of one species of Salvelinus in some lakes of the Val d’Aran has been known among anglers for a long time, but the species identification was lacking. The distribution of S. umbla in the Val d’Aran appear to be restricted to a very few lakes and it has not spread downstream.
Highlights
Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus (Linnaeus, 1758) is a stenotherm salmonid restricted to cold water habitats, living from arctic to temperate climate regions of the Holarctic (Klemetsen et al, 2003)
Populations of Arctic charr present in Alpine and subalpine lakes in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany and Austria were usually included into S. alpinus (Maitland, 1995), but recently were revised to Alpine charr Salvelinus umbla (Linnaeus, 1758) (Kottelat & Freyhof, 2007)
Fig. 2.— Specimens of Salvelinus umbla captured in Lake Obago in July 2015
Summary
Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus (Linnaeus, 1758) is a stenotherm salmonid restricted to cold water habitats, living from arctic to temperate climate regions of the Holarctic (Klemetsen et al, 2003). Populations of Arctic charr present in Alpine and subalpine lakes in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany and Austria were usually included into S. alpinus (Maitland, 1995), but recently were revised to Alpine charr Salvelinus umbla (Linnaeus, 1758) (Kottelat & Freyhof, 2007). Machino (1999) reviewed charr introductions in southern Europe and left open the possibility that S. umbla (referred in the original article as S. alpinus) was present in Pyrenean lakes of the Huesca and Lleida provinces. The only Salvelinus species known to be present in Spain is the brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis (Mitchill, 1814), which was stocked in several lakes by government agencies in the 1970s and, as a consequence, self-sustaining populations currently exist in some lakes (Sostoa & Lobón-Cerviá, 1989; Doadrio et al, 2011; Miró & Ventura, 2013)
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