Rapid shifts in multiple life history traits in a population of threespine stickleback

Habitat fragmentation induces rapid divergence of migratory and isolated sticklebacks

The adaptive capacity of many organisms is seriously challenged by human-imposed environmental change, which currently happens at unprecedented rates and magnitudes. For migratory fish, habitat fragmentation is a major challenge that can compromise their survival and reproduction. Therefore, it is important to study if fish populations can adapt to such modifications of their habitat. Here, we study whether originally anadromous three-spined stickleback populations (Gasterosteus aculeatus; “migrants”) changed in behavior and morphology in response to human-induced isolation. We made use of a natural field-experiment, where the construction of pumping stations and sluices in the 1970s unintendedly created replicates of land-locked stickleback populations (“resident”) in the Netherlands. For two years, we systematically tested populations of residents and migrants for differences in morphology and behavioral traits (activity, aggressiveness, exploration, boldness, and shoaling) in lab-based assays. We detected differences between migrant and resident populations in virtually all phenotypic traits studied: compared with the ancestral migrants, residents were smaller in size, had fewer and smaller plates and were significantly more active, aggressive, exploratory and bolder, and shoaled less. Despite large ecological differences between 2018 and 2019, results were largely consistent across the two years. Our study shows that human-induced environmental change has led to the rapid and consistent morphological and behavioral divergence of stickleback populations in about 50 generations. Such changes may be adaptive but this remains to be tested.

An assessment of terminology for intraspecific diversity in fishes, with a focus on "ecotypes" and "life histories"

Understanding and preserving intraspecific diversity (ISD) is important for species conservation. However, ISD units do not have taxonomic standards and are not universally recognized. The terminology used to describe ISD is varied and often used ambiguously. We compared definitions of terms used to describe ISD with use in recent studies of three fish taxa: sticklebacks (Gasterosteidae), Pacific salmon and trout (Oncorhynchus spp., "PST"), and lampreys (Petromyzontiformes). Life history describes the phenotypic responses of organisms to environments and includes biological parameters that affect population growth or decline. Life-history pathway(s) are the result of different organismal routes of development that can result in different life histories. These terms can be used to describe recognizable life-history traits. Life history is generally used in organismal- and ecology-based journals. The terms paired species/species pairs have been used to describe two different phenotypes, whereas in some species and situations a continuum of phenotypes may be expressed. Our review revealed overlapping definitions for race and subspecies, and subspecies and ecotypes. Ecotypes are genotypic adaptations to particular environments, and this term is often used in genetic- and evolution-based journals. "Satellite species" is used for situations in which a parasitic lamprey yields two or more derived, nonparasitic lamprey species. Designatable Units, Evolutionary Significant Units (ESUs), and Distinct Population Segments (DPS) are used by some governments to classify ISD of vertebrate species within distinct and evolutionary significant criteria. In situations where the genetic or life-history components of ISD are not well understood, a conservative approach would be to call them phenotypes.

Climate change alters the reproductive phenology and investment of a lacustrine fish, the three-spine stickleback

High-latitude lakes are particularly sensitive to the effects of global climate change, demonstrating earlier ice breakup, longer ice-free seasons, and increased water temperatures. Such physical changes have implications for diverse life-history traits in taxa across entire lake food webs. Here, we use a five-decade time series from an Alaskan lake to explore effects of climate change on growth and reproduction of a widely distributed lacustrine fish, the three-spine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). We used multivariate autoregressive state-space (MARSS) models to describe trends in the mean length for multiple size classes and to explore the influence of physical (date of ice breakup, surface water temperature) and biological (density of con- and heterospecifics) factors. As predicted, mean size of age 1 and older fish at the end of the growing season increased across years with earlier ice breakup and warmer temperatures. In contrast, mean size of age 0 fish decreased over time. Overall, lower fish density and warmer water temperatures were associated with larger size for all cohorts. Earlier ice breakup was associated with larger size for age 1 and older fish but, paradoxically, with smaller size of age 0 fish. To explore this latter result, we used mixing models on age 0 size distributions, which revealed an additional cohort in years with early ice breakup, lowering the mean size of age 0 fish. Moreover, early ice breakup was associated with earlier breeding, evidenced by earlier capture of age 0 fish. Our results suggest that early ice breakup altered both timing and frequency of breeding; three-spine stickleback spawned earlier and more often in response to earlier ice breakup date. While previous studies have shown the influence of changing conditions in northern lakes on breeding timing and growth, this is the first to document increased breeding frequency, highlighting another pathway by which climate change can alter the ecology of northern lakes.

Evolutionary Influences of Plastic Behavioral Responses Upon Environmental Challenges in an Adaptive Radiation

At the end of the 19th century, the suggestion was made by several scientists, including J. M. Baldwin, that behavioral responses to environmental change could both rescue populations from extinction (Baldwin Effect) and influence the course of subsequent evolution. Here we provide the historical and theoretical background for this argument and offer evidence of the importance of these ideas for understanding how animals (and other organisms that exhibit behavior) will respond to the rapid environmental changes caused by human activity. We offer examples from long-term research on the evolution of behavioral and other phenotypes in the adaptive radiation of the threespine stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus), a radiation in which it is possible to infer ancestral patterns of behavioral plasticity relative to the post-glacial freshwater radiation in northwestern North America, and to use patterns of parallelism and contemporary evolution to understand adaptive causes of responses to environmental modification. Our work offers insights into the complexity of cognitive responses to environmental change, and into the importance of examining multiple aspects of the phenotype simultaneously, if we are to understand how behavioral shifts contribute to the persistence of populations and to subsequent evolution. We conclude by discussing the origins of apparent novelties induced by environmental shifts, and the importance of accounting for geographic variation within species if we are to accurately anticipate the effects of anthropogenic environmental modification on the persistence and evolution of animals.

The evolution of antipredator behaviour following relaxed and reversed selection in Alaskan threespine stickleback fish

Changing environments, whether through natural or anthropogenic causes, can lead to the loss of some selective pressures ('relaxed selection') and possibly even the reinstatement of selective agents not encountered for many generations ('reversed selection'). We examined the outcome of relaxed and reversed selection in the adaptive radiation of the threespine stickleback fish, Gasterostues aculeatus L., in which isolated populations encounter a variety of predation regimes. Oceanic stickleback, which represent the ancestral founders of the freshwater radiation, encounter many piscivorous fish. Derived, freshwater populations, on the other hand, vary with respect to the presence of predators. Some populations encounter native salmonids, whereas others have not experienced predation by large fish in thousands of generations (relax-selected populations). Some relax-selected populations have had sport fish, including rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, introduced within the past several decades (reverse-selected). We examined the behavioural responses of stickleback from three populations of each type to simulated attacks by trout and birds to determine whether relaxed and reversed selection has led to divergence in behaviour, and whether this divergence was predator specific. Fish from trout-free populations showed weak responses to trout, as predicted, but these responses were similar to those of oceanic (ancestral) populations. Fish from populations that co-occur with trout, whether native or introduced, showed elevated antipredator responses, indicating that in freshwater, trout predation selects for enhanced antipredator responses, which can evolve extremely rapidly. Comparison of laboratory-reared and wild-caught individuals suggests a combination of learned and genetic components to this variation. Responses to a model bird flyover were weakly linked to predation environment, indicating that the loss of predation by trout may partially influence the evolution of responses to birds. Our results reject the hypothesis that the consistent presence of predatory birds has been sufficient to maintain responses to piscivorous fish under periods of relaxed selection.

Spatial phenotypic and genetic structure of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in a heterogeneous natural system, Lake Mývatn, Iceland

Eco-evolutionary responses of natural populations to spatial environmental variation strongly depend on the relative strength of environmental differences/natural selection and dispersal/gene flow. In absence of geographic barriers, as often is the case in lake ecosystems, gene flow is expected to constrain adaptive divergence between environments – favoring phenotypic plasticity or high trait variability. However, if divergent natural selection is sufficiently strong, adaptive divergence can occur in face of gene flow. The extent of divergence is most often studied between two contrasting environments, whereas potential for multimodal divergence is little explored. We investigated phenotypic (body size, defensive structures, and feeding morphology) and genetic (microsatellites) structure in threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) across five habitat types and two basins (North and South) within the geologically young and highly heterogeneous Lake Mývatn, North East Iceland. We found that (1) North basin stickleback were, on average, larger and had relatively longer spines than South basin stickleback, whereas (2) feeding morphology (gill raker number and gill raker gap width) differed among three of five habitat types, and (3) there was only subtle genetic differentiation across the lake. Overall, our results indicate predator and prey mediated phenotypic divergence across multiple habitats in the lake, in face of gene flow.

Repeated lake-stream divergence in stickleback life history within a Central European lake basin

Life history divergence between populations inhabiting ecologically distinct habitats might be a potent source of reproductive isolation, but has received little attention in the context of speciation. We here test for life history divergence between threespine stickleback inhabiting Lake Constance (Central Europe) and multiple tributary streams. Otolith analysis shows that lake fish generally reproduce at two years of age, while their conspecifics in all streams have shifted to a primarily annual life cycle. This divergence is paralleled by a striking and consistent reduction in body size and fecundity in stream fish relative to lake fish. Stomach content analysis suggests that life history divergence might reflect a genetic or plastic response to pelagic versus benthic foraging modes in the lake and the streams. Microsatellite and mitochondrial markers further reveal that life history shifts in the different streams have occurred independently following the colonization by Lake Constance stickleback, and indicate the presence of strong barriers to gene flow across at least some of the lake-stream habitat transitions. Given that body size is known to strongly influence stickleback mating behavior, these barriers might well be related to life history divergence.

Changing organisms in rapidly changing anthropogenic landscapes: the significance of the 'Umwelt'-concept and functional habitat for animal conservation

There is a growing recognition for the significance of evolutionary thinking in ecology and conservation biology. However, ecology and conservation studies often work with species-specific, fixed traits that ignore intraspecific variation. The way the habitat of a species is considered is an example of typological thinking biased by human perception. Structural habitat units (e.g., land cover types) as perceived by humans may not represent functional habitat units for other organisms. Human activity may also interfere with the environmental information used by organisms. Therefore, the Umwelt-concept from ethology needs to be integrated in the way we think about habitat and habitat selection. It states that different organisms live in different perceptual worlds dealing with specific subsamples of the environment as a result of their evolutionary and developmental history. The resource-based habitat concept is a functional habitat model based on resource distributions (consumables and conditions) and individual movements. This behavioural approach takes into account aspects that relate to the perceptual world of organisms. This approach may offer new opportunities for conservation and may help avoid failures with habitat restoration. Perceptual ability may be subject to adaptive change, but it may also constrain organisms from showing adaptive behaviours in rapidly changing environments.

Prolonged life span among endemic Gasterosteus populations

Throughout their circumboreal coastal distribution, the threespine stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus L., 1758) typically reproduce at 1 or 2 years of age (second or third summer) and die during the year of the reproductive cycle. Extending from a previous study on the Haida Gwaii archipelago, western Canada, that identified an exceptionally long life span (8 years) in a population of large-bodied threespine stickleback, we use pelvic spine annuli to examine age of the five largest adult stickleback of 12 additional populations comprising five populations with average-sized adults (45–60 mm standard length (SL)) and seven populations with large-bodied adult stickleback (>75 mm SL). Each of the small-bodied populations had a maximum age of 1 or 2 years typical for the taxon. Among the large-bodied populations, which also reached adult size in the 2nd year, adult stickleback in the populations ranged from 3 to 6 years, indicating extended longevity. Low productivity habitats and refuge against gape-limited piscivores, each of which theoretically predicts reduced rate of senescence, are associated with the greatest longevity among these populations. These data combined with the recent full genome sequence for stickleback provide opportunities for locating genetic markers for extended longevity.