As part of the fish monitoring project over the past four years, we have uncovered and explored various species-at-risk issues in Algonquin Park. One group in particular helps define biodiversity in Algonquin Park - fishes belonging to the genus Coregonus, referred to as the 'coregonines'. This is the whitefish / cisco group.
One important discovery is the occurrence of Blackfin cisco (Coregonus nigripinnis) in several lakes in northern Algonquin Park. This species is ranked by the IUCN Red List as extinct. We have found it living in the post-glacial drainage outflow of Lake Algonquin– the precursor of Lakes Huron and Michigan that once drained through northern Algonquin Park before the formation of the lower lakes and Niagara Falls. In fact, Cedar Lake, one of the sites with Blackfin, may be the last intact ‘Great Lake’.
We are starting a research program to investigate the ecology of blackfin cisco in Algonquin Park lakes.
White Partridge Lake in Algonquin Park sits in the historic Great Lakes drainage system that existed after glaciers receded in the last ice-age. It reportedly contains two species of cisco; lake herring/cisco (Coregonus artedi) and shortjaw cisco (Coregonus zenithicus). The shortjaw cisco is distributed widely in large lakes along the southern edge of Precambrian Shield landscapes from this southern point north into the territories ofCanada. The distribution is disjunct and unusual. The purpose of this project was to determine the status and ecology of these two ciscoes inWhitePartridgeLake.
There are many other aspects to coregonine diversity that we are only beginning to explore such as pure pelagic lake whitefish, food web diversity and functional species diversity within watersheds.