Press release: www.slu.se/en/ew-news/2...

@naturecomms.bsky.social @uppsalauniversitet.bsky.social

Let us know your thoughts or questions—we’d love to discuss! 9/n

Huge thanks to our team at Uppsala University, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and collaborators—and special shoutout to the local fishermen who inspired this research! 🐟🎣 8/n

Dive into the full story by Jake Goodall, Leif Andersson and co-authors here: rdcu.be/d4y2b 7/n

The piscivorous herring feeds primarily on stickleback, which eat perch and pike larvae and is upsetting the Baltic food-web. Designing policies to avoid overfishing piscivorous herring could be key to control the stickleback and help restore the balance of the Baltic Sea ecosystem. 6/n

Why does this matter? In the sensitive Baltic Sea, the food-web is woven by few species and those that go extinct can not easily be replaced. Specialized ecotypes within species, like the piscivorous herring, are therefore extra important to maintain ecosystem stability. 5/n

Why did this evolve in the Baltic but not in the Atlantic? Lack of competitors like tuna or mackerel may have driven this adaptation, underscoring how species can adapt and differentiate rapidly when new ecological opportunities arise. 4/n

Our multidisciplinary analyses and results suggest there are several genetically distinct subpopulations of piscivorous herring north & south of Stockholm, and around the Baltic Sea. 3/n

We reveal the recent evolution of a genetically distinct, large piscivorous form of Atlantic herring in the Baltic Sea—an otherwise plankton-feeding species adapted to this young, brackish ecosystem. 🌊🧬 2/n