First records of three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus inn Svalbard freshwaters: An effect of climate change?

摘要

Several fish species, including three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, have shown a more northerly distribution in the Norwegian Sea into the eastern part of the Arctic Ocean during the last decades. Three-spined stickleback has however never been recorded in freshwaters on Svalbard, whereas Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus, has been the only reproducing fish with anadromous, resident, and landlocked populations. On this background, we sampled fish by gillnetting, electrofishing, and