FISH BIOGEOGRAPHY IN THE BERING GLACIER REGION, ALASKA

Bering Glacier has been receding from its Holocene maximum since the beginning of the 20th century, leaving behind proglacial lakes and streams in its wake. We have investigated the species composition of freshwater fishes in these new lakes and stream, and found that they have already been colonized by threespine stickleback, prickly sculpin, slimy sculpin, coho salmon, dolly varden, surf smelt, starry flounder, Pacific Staghorn sculpin and sockeye salmon. The distribution of these fishes does not appear to depend on water chemistry, perhaps due to the youth of the landscape.