The evolution of phenotypic variation in replicated ecological landscapes

我的研究项目侧重于研究影响种群内部和种群之间形态和遗传变异的进化过程。这项研究的大部分发生在海达瓜伊和邻近的群岛，并针对125个湖泊三刺鱼种群进行研究，这些种群在体型上表现出显著的可变性。该提案开发了5个独立的MSc项目。(1)利用遗传标记了解在六个分离湖泊中发现的高度非典型的巨型刺鱼的祖先和亲缘关系；(2)研究在这些刺鱼种群中观察到的防御甲的频繁形态不对称是否与侧化（不对称）行为有关，正如最近报道的其他鱼类，如孔雀鱼，它们更喜欢用左眼观察威胁刺激，而用右眼观察良性刺激。(3)研究1992年在一个没有掠食性鱼类或掠食性鸟类的池塘中建立的甲刺鱼实验种群，并验证大型无脊椎鱼食性动物是一种选择压力导致甲刺鱼脱落的假设；(4)研究行为差异（觅食、觅食和捕食）是否已经进化。(5)分析近30年来在海达圭博尔顿湖采集的棘鱼肌肉组织的稳定同位素特征，以检验不同的防御表型是否占据不同的生态位。碳和稳定同位素提供了个体生态位的时间整合特征，包括栖息地和饮食。防御表型和同位素特征之间耦合的证据将是非常令人兴奋的，因为它将为种群内的形态变异提供生态背景。这代表了进化文献中歧义和讨论的主要领域之一，因此，这个项目可能会产生相当大的影响。

My research program focuses on studying evolutionary processes influencing morphological and genetical variation within and among populations. The majority of this research occurs on Haida Gwaii and adjacent archipelago and is directed at studies of the 125 lake populations of threespine stickleback which exhibit a remarkable variability in body form. This proposal develops 5 separate MSc projects. (1) understanding the ancestry and relatedness of the highly atypical Giant Stickleback found in six disjunct lakes using genetic markers (2) investigating whether the frequent morphological asymmetries in the defense armour observed in these stickleback populations are associated with lateralized (asymmetric) behaviors, as has been recently reported in other fishes such as guppies which prefer to view threatening stimuli with their left eye but benign stimuli with their right eye. (3) investigating an experimental population of armored stickleback that was established in 1992 in a pond without predatory fish or predatory birds and test the hypothesis that macroinvertebrate piscivores are a selective pressure that leads to armor loss, (4) examining whether there has been evolution of behavioral differences (foraging, defense) between the experimental and ancestral populations and (5) analyzing stable isotope signatures of muscle tissues of stickleback collected from Boulton Lake, Haida Gwaii over the last 30 years to test whether different defense phenotypes occupy different niches. Carbon and stable isotopes provide a time-integrated signature of an individual's niche including habitat and diet. Evidence for a coupling between defense phenotype and isotopic signature would be a very exciting as it would provide an ecological context to morphological variability within populations. This represents one of the major areas of ambiguity and discussion in the evolutionary literature and consequently, this project could be of considerable impact.