The role of calcium and predation on plate morph evolution in the three‐spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) |
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Authors: | Carl Smith Rowena Spence Iain Barber Mirosław Przybylski Robert J. Wootton |
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Affiliation: | 1.School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, KY16 8LB, U.K;2.Department of Biology, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, U.K;3.Department of Ecology and Vertebrate Zoology, University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland;4.Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DA, U.K |
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Abstract: | While the genetic basis to plate morph evolution of the three‐spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is well described, the environmental variables that select for different plate and spine morphs are incompletely understood. Using replicate populations of three‐spined sticklebacks on North Uist, Scotland, we previously investigated the role of predation pressure and calcium limitation on the adaptive evolution of stickleback morphology and behavior. While dissolved calcium proved a significant predictor of plate and spine morph, predator abundance did not. Ecol. Evol., xxx, 2014 and xxx performed a comparable analysis to our own to address the same question. They failed to detect a significant effect of dissolved calcium on morphological evolution, but did establish a significant effect of predation; albeit in the opposite direction to their prediction. |
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Keywords: | Adaptation calcium concentration
Gasterosteus aculeatus
natural selection phenotypic adaptation selective predation |
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