''Salvelinus umbla'', also known as lake char, is a species of char found in certain lakes of the region of the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

in Europe. This char species usually inhabits the deeper waters of the lakes, feeding on crustaceans, insects and

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...

fauna. Larger specimens can be

piscivore A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that primarily eats fish. Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution (via water-bound amphibians during the Devonian period); insectivory came next; then in time, the more terrestrially adapted repti ...

s. They look for areas with pebbly or stony bottom on steep slopes, at depths between 30 and 120 m during the

spawning Spawn is the Egg cell, eggs and Spermatozoa, sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of freely releasing eggs and sperm into a body of water (fresh or marine); the physical act is ...

season.

Distribution

This char species lives in alpine and

subalpine Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

glacial valley U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...

lakes of central Europe, between

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and between

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and Northern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It has been introduced in high altitude lakes as well. Although it is assessed as a

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

species by

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

, the

eutrophication Eutrophication is a general term describing a process in which nutrients accumulate in a body of water, resulting in an increased growth of organisms that may deplete the oxygen in the water; ie. the process of too many plants growing on the s ...

of the lakes in the Subalpine region, which began in the 1950s and peaked in 1979, badly affected ''Salvelinus umbla'' populations, which crashed during that period. The lake char became locally extinct in lakes such as Mondsee and other char species, such as ''

Salvelinus profundus ''Salvelinus profundus'' ( 'Deepwater char') is a deepwater char species found only in deep areas of Lake Constance. This fish can reach in length and has a blunt snout with the mouth in subinferior position. Its lower fins have no white margi ...

'', were driven to

extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

in the same period. Currently, however, most lake char populations are gradually recovering. The name ''Salvelinus umbla'' has also been used in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

of char populations of central parts of the country, referred to as ''storröding'' (large char) in distinction of the northern ''fjällröding'' ( = ''

Salvelinus alpinus The Arctic char or Arctic charr (''Salvelinus alpinus'') is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes, as well as Arctic and subarctic coastal waters in the Holarctic. Distribution and habitat It spawns in freshwater ...

'').Svensson M et al. (2010
Fiskar - Fishes - ''Pisces''
In ''Rödlistade arter i Sverige 2010'' (Swedish Red List 2010), 323-332 These populations are not thought to be related to the Central European populations, rather storröding from Lake Sommen and

Lake Vättern A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

are closely related to the char of

Lake Ladoga Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake located entirely in Europe, the second largest lake in Russia after Lake ...

in Russia.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2857855 umbla Cold water fish Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Fish described in 1758