Jongmo Suh defended his doctoral thesis entitled “Genetic Variability of Minnows and Loaches in Rivers and High Mountain Lakes from the Pyrenees and Italian Alps” as a doctoral student at the Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
The objectives of the work have been to identify and evaluate the distribution of invasive fish (Phoxinus sp.) introduced by human activity in high mountain lakes and to determine the processes and pathways of propagation of these species, among others.
Despite the active research of recent years that has revealed a diversity of species within the genus Phoxinus, the study of their distribution has been predominantly confined to lowland areas. In this study, through various genetic analyses carried out in high mountain lakes in the Pyrenees in Spain, France, and the Italian Alps, the introduction of the species Phoxinus bigerri, Phoxinus csikii, Phoxinus dragarum, and Phoxinus septimaniae into these regions has been confirmed.
Contrary to initial expectations that introductions into high mountain lakes or reservoirs could affect downstream river ecosystems, this study has revealed that downstream migration does not occur easily.
The thesis was supervised by Dr. Marc Ventura from CEAB-CSIC and Dr. Quim Pou, currently the director of La Sorellona, and by Dr. Marisol Felip Benach from the University of Barcelona (UB).
