Clone distribution of the earthworm Eiseniella tetraedra (Sav.) (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae) across an altitudinal gradient on subarctic mountains of NW Europe

In earlier studies, we have shown that clone diversity of the parthenogenetic earthworm Eiseniella tetraedra increases from the upper reaches of rivers in northern Sweden towards their mouths. Now we survey brooks in the Scandes Mountains in the watershed between Sweden and Norway where major rivers originate. Using starch gel enzyme electrophoresis, we found 37 clones in a total catch of 379 individuals from six mountains. The most abundant clone made up 48.3% of the individuals collected. It was present on most mountains and was found at different elevations. In comparison with other clones it may represent a general-purpose genotype adapted to environmental conditions ranging from alpine through to subalpine to boreal habitats in the mountains. Diversity of clone assemblages decreased with increasing elevation. On four mountains, one to two clones were found at higher elevations. Passive downstream dispersal of E. tetraedra propagules from wider areas of the mountains was responsible for the more diverse clone pools in the lower reaches of the brooks (i.e., “small rivers behave like large ones”). Two clone groups, which deviated from the norm clone in their number of enzyme variants, were evenly distributed among different elevations. Therefore, we could not correlate genotype differences (i.e., adaptation of clones to mountain elevations). Clone pool similarities among the mountains were low on average (range 0–58%) but in a cluster of four mountains, similarities varied from 46% to 58%. Clone pool similarities between different elevations of the same mountain ranged from 27% to 83%. One mountain brook was sampled over 3 years to assess clone turnover. Only the norm clone was found in upstream habitats but it and three other clones were recorded downstream in at least 2 years. Ten clones were found once in the latter habitat as well.