Handling does not affect reproductive signals of male threespine stickleback |
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Authors: | André Y Laurin Robert J Scott |
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Affiliation: | (1) Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1 University Drive, Corner Brook, NL, A2H 6P9, Canada;(2) Parks Canada Discovery Centre, 57 Discovery Drive, Hamilton, ON, L8L 8K4, Canada |
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Abstract: | We examined the affect of handling on reproductive signal expression in male threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus. Spectrophotometric techniques have become popular methods for measuring fish color, but the measurements require handling
of the subjects in order to make measurements. Fish can undergo rapid physiological color change in response to stress. As
such, handling fish may induce color changes and measured colour may not be representative of signal appearance under non-stressful
conditions. We measured the reflectance characteristics of the opercular, ventro-lateral and dorso-lateral areas of 41 reproductive
males from Hotel Lake, BC, Canada using spectroradiometry immediately upon capture and again at 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, and 20 min
post-capture. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that post-capture handling did not affect opercular or ventro-lateral reflectance
characteristics over the 20 min period. However, we did observe a change in dorso-lateral reflectance characteristics of parental
males over the experiment. The results of our study show that handling does not influence reflective properties of two key
components of stickleback reproductive signals during a time frame that is reasonable for taking field measurements of signal
color. |
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Keywords: | Courtship signal Handling stress Colour change Gasterosteus aculeatus |
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