Body shape comparison of Urmia bleak populations, Alburnus atropatenae

Urmia bleak (Alburnus atropatenae) is endemic to Iran and it has been reported from rivers of the Lake Urmia basin. In this research 274 specimens of this fish from seven rivers of Lake Urmia area including Aghdarreh, Nazloochai, Barandooz, Sarough, Zarrinehrud, Senteh and Talkhehrud were studied. In morphometric geometric, Landmarks number 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9 had the highest variation. Also in canonical variate analysis, the population of Talkhehrud River were to some extent separated from other populations, and the population of Nazloochai River was completely separated from the population of Senteh and Zarrinehrud rivers. In comparison of the morphs there was no significant differences between the populations of Barandooz and Talkherud, Barandooz and Nazloochai, and Zarrinehrud and Senteh rivers (p<0.0001). Amongst these populations, Zarrinehrud and Senteh rivers showed the highest overlap. Also, the result showed some significant differences among the other populations (p<0.0001). Populations of Aghdarreh and Talkhehrud and Talkherud and Zarrinehrud were completely separated from each other and the most differences and landmark changed were observed between Aghdarreh and Talkhehrud populations. The geometric morphemetric methods could only separate the population of Talkhehrud from other populations to a great extent, in spite of significant differences among the seven populations.