Resolving taxonomy of the cisco (Coregonus) species complex in the Laurentian Great Lakes and Lake Nipigon
Contributing Authors
Andrew Muir (GLFC, amuir@usgs.gov), Amanda Ackiss (USGS), Nicholas Mandrak (University of Toronto), Nicholas Boucher (GLFC)
Executive Summary
The manager endorsed Coregonine Restoration Framework (CRF) identified a need for reviewing and updating the taxonomy of ciscoes, and this task was assigned to the first of four science teams established in the Planning Phase of the CRF. The ‘Resolve cisco taxonomy’ science team addressed this need by engaging the Joint American Fisheries Society-American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Committee on the Names of Fishes (herein the Names Committee) to review the most recent morphological, ecological, and genetic data available for ciscoes in the Great Lakes and Lake Nipigon. The Names Committee’s taxonomic review took place at the 2022 Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA in two parts: 1) a special symposium held on Tuesday, May 17th entitled “Reviewing cisco taxonomy in the Great Lakes and Lake Nipigon” followed by 2) two days of closed session discussions and deliberation by the Names Committee. The symposium was comprised of fifteen invited talks, including four plenary talks on the history, taxonomy, zoogeography, and Saugeen-Ojibway Nation Indigenous perspective of ciscoes and eleven 15-minute talks on the morphology, genetics, and ecology of ciscoes. The taxonomic decisions rendered by the Names Committee were published in 2023 in the 8th edition of Common and Scientific Names of Fishes from the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Outcomes
Three-day assessment of cisco taxonomy by the Names Committee at the 2022 Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, including a special symposium entitled “Reviewing cisco taxonomy in the Great Lakes and Lake Nipigon”
Updated taxonomy of ciscoes published in Page, L. M., K. E. Bemis, T. E. Dowling, H. Espinosa-Pérez, L. T. Findley, C. R. Gilbert, K. E. Hartel, R. N. Lea, N. E. Mandrak, M. A. Neighbors, J. J. Schmitter-Soto, and H. J. Walker, Jr., editors. 2023a. Common and scientific names of fishes from the United States, Canada, and Mexico, 8th edition. American Fisheries Society, Special Publication 37, Bethesda, Maryland
The Eighth Edition of Common and Scientific Names of Fishes