Relationships Among Trophic Niche Width, Morphological Variation, and Genetic Diversity of Hemiculter leucisculus in China

According to the niche variation hypothesis (NVH), populations with wider niches are phenotypically more variable than those narrow niches. Giller expanded NVH, suggesting that width, morphological variation, and genetic diversity all positively correlated. However, has been a subject of debate discussion. In present study, NVH was tested by analyzing relationships among trophic Hemiculter leucisculus , widespread cyprinid fish. The fish samples were collected from six sites across Haihe, Yellow, Yangtze River basins in China. analyzed using Pearson correlation at inter-population level. Our analysis indicated width is significantly correlated which corroborates NVH. Morphological diversity. no relationship observed between We inferred dietary H. might change due plastic response toward environmental changes rather variation. also suggest effects environment heredity on freshwater should be quantified separately further studies.