Back from the brink: the Holocene history of the Carpathian barbel Barbus carpathicus

As a result of specific adaptations and habitat preferences strongly rheophilic fish species may show high levels of endemism. Many temperate rheophilic fish species were subjected to a series of range contractions during the Pleistocene, and then successfully expanded during the Holocene, colonising previously abandoned areas. The Carpathian barbel (Barbus carpathicus Kotlík, Tsigenopoulos, Ráb et Berrebi 2002) occurs in the montane streams in three basins of the main Central European rivers in the northern part of the Carpathian range. We used genetic variation within 3 mitochondrial and 9 microsatellite loci to determine a pattern of postglacial expansion in B. carpathicus. We found that overall genetic variation within the species is relatively low. Estimate of time to the most recent common ancestor (tMRCA) of mitochondrial sequences falls within the Holocene. The highest levels of genetic variation found in upper reaches of the Tisa river in the Danube basin suggest that glacial refugia were located in the south-eastern part of the species range. Our data suggest that the species crossed different watersheds at least six times as three genetically distinct groups (probably established in different expansion episodes) were found in northern part of the species range. Clines of genetic variation were observed in both the Danube and Vistula basins, which probably resulted from subsequent bottlenecks while colonizing successive habitats (south eastern populations) or due to the admixture of genetically diverse individuals to a previously uniform population (Vistula basin). Therefore, B. carpathicus underwent both demographic breakdowns and expansions during the Holocene, showing its distribution and demography are sensitive to environmental change. Our findings are important in the light of the current human-induced habitats alterations.