Reproductive isolation and genetic differentiation of ferox trout from sympatric brown trout in Loch Aweand Loch Laggan, Scotland

Molecular marker studies reported here, involving allozymes, mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites, demonstrate that ferox brown trout Salmo trutta in Lochs Awe and Laggan, Scotland, are reproductively isolated and genetically distinct from co-occurring brown trout. Ferox were shown to spawn primarily, and possibly solely, in a single large river in each lake system making them particularly vulnerable to environmental changes. Although a low level of introgression seems to have occurred with sympatric brown trout, possibly as a result of human-induced habitat alterations and stocking, ferox trout in these two lakes meet the requirements for classification as a distinct biological, phylogenetic and morphological species. It is proposed that the scientific name Salmo ferox Jardine, 1835, as already applied to Lough Melvin (Ireland) ferox, should be extended to Awe and Laggan ferox.

Naturalising the Highlands: geographies of mountain fieldwork in late-Victorian Scotland

Through a detailed examination of two late-Victorian field clubs dedicated to the exploration of alpine botany in the Scottish Highlands, this paper contributes to work on the historical geographies of civic science. By focusing on the scientific and social character of mountain fieldwork it analyses the reciprocal relations between the spaces, practices and science of Highland botanising and wider concerns with sociability, character and civic virtue. In so doing it investigates the transposition of a variety of discursive resources from evolutionism to tourism into the language and practices of botanical science. This focus enables the paper to complicate more general accounts of natural history in the Victorian period and to consider a number of methodological issues relevant to reconstructing the historical geographies of science.