Diversification of narrow-clawed crayfish (Pontastacus leptodactylus Eschscholtz, 1823) populations from different parts of Turkey

The present study was to evaluate diversification of crayfish populations based on length and weight measurements. Crayfish were collected from natural stock with fyke-net at five different populations of Turkey in the lakes Iznik (IL), Egirdir (EL) and Sera (SL) as well as Hirfanli Dam Lake (HD) and Keban Dam Lake (KL) from June to July, 2008. The mean length, weight and hepatopancreas moisture content (HM, %) of the individuals sampled from different regions were found in order from largest to smallest as EL>HD>KL>IL>SL, EL>HD>KL>SL>IL and IL>KL>HD>KL>SL, respectively. In this study the median value of b coefficient, describing growth type from length-weight relationship, of five populations was 3.08, and fifty percent of the values were fell between 2.72 and 3.75. The growth types in these populations were determined as isometric, except in Keban Dam Lake (positive allometric). DFA (Discriminant Function Analysis) showed that there were no significant differences among the populations, meanwhile 53.06 % dissimilarities between populations was driven by length and HP with the contribution of 60.18% and 39.82% (based on SIMPER analysis), respectively. Although results from b coefficients, HM values and DF analysis of populations may reveal that their environmental conditions and growth types were similar in a certain extent, many more data taken from at least one-year sampling period is highly recommended for better understanding on factors that influenced the growth of its crayfish structure.