A Comparison of the morphological characteristics of Alosa braschnikowii)Borodin, 1904) in the southern Caspian Sea basin

Alosa braschnikowii, is abundant Clupeidae fishes in the southern Caspian Sea basin. This study was conducted to compare the morphometric and meristic characteristics of six populations of Alosa braschnikowii in the southern Caspian Sea basin including Miankale, Sari, Tonekabon, anzali, Rezvanshahr and Astara. In total 181 fish from the aforementioned stations (specimens were caught by beach seine in November 2012 from each station) were studied and compared for 33 morphometric and 10 meristic characteristics were examined. The extracted data were analyzed after data standardization using Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Discriminate Function Analysis (DFA). Univariate analysis of variance and Kruskal-Wallis test among six populations revealed that 32 morphometric characters out of 33 and 4 meristic characters out of 10 characters studied were found to be significant (P≤0.05). DFA revealed that these six populations were distinct from each other in morphometric characters. PCA showed that these six populations are distinct from each other in 6 morphometric characteristics. These differences seem to be under the influence of geographical variation and feed conditions of the fish populations.