DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Flexible stem and parental effects: synthesizing and applying two models of rapid evolution to the threespine stickleback radiation

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These studies aim to understand how flexibility in parenting behavior and effects of parenting on offspring behavior and physiology (parental effects) influence evolutionary patterns using the threespine stickleback fish as a model. Threespine stickleback originated in marine environments and have colonized freshwater multiple times. In some cases, the exact age of freshwater populations is known, providing a unique opportunity to study not only the mechanisms underlying how variation in parental care influences offspring in multiple environments, but also examination of the speed at which these changes are occurring. Current ecosystems and habitats are rapidly changing in response to climatic and anthropogenic influences, and the proposed series of studies provides an opportunity to observe how parental behavior and parental effects facilitate rapid, adaptive evolution. While many studies of parental effects, including on humans, focus on the effects that mothers have on their offspring, in threespine stickleback, the father is the sole provider of parental care. Therefore these studies will provide insight into how fathers influence their offspring, and will determine whether the influence of mothers and fathers on offspring is similar or different.