Evidence of Adaptive Evolutionary Divergence during Biological Invasion |
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| Authors: | Kay Lucek Arjun Sivasundar Ole Seehausen |
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| Institution: | 1. Aquatic Ecology and Evolution, Institute of Ecology & Evolution, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.; 2. Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Biogeochemistry, EAWAG Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.; University of California, Berkeley, United States of America, |
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| Abstract: | Rapid phenotypic diversification during biological invasions can either arise by adaptation to alternative environments or by adaptive phenotypic plasticity. Where experimental evidence for adaptive plasticity is common, support for evolutionary diversification is rare. Here, we performed a controlled laboratory experiment using full-sib crosses between ecologically divergent threespine stickleback populations to test for a genetic basis of adaptation. Our populations are from two very different habitats, lake and stream, of a recently invaded range in Switzerland and differ in ecologically relevant morphological traits. We found that in a lake-like food treatment lake fish grow faster than stream fish, resembling the difference among wild type individuals. In contrast, in a stream-like food treatment individuals from both populations grow similarly. Our experimental data suggest that genetically determined diversification has occurred within less than 140 years after the arrival of stickleback in our studied region. |
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