The role of variation and plasticity in parental care during the adaptive radiation of three-spine sticklebacks.

ABSTRACT: Phenotypic plasticity might influence evolutionary processes such as adaptive radiations. Plasticity in parental care might be especially effective in facilitating adaptive radiations if it allows populations to persist in novel environments. Here, we test the hypothesis that behavioral plasticity by parents in response to predation risk facilitated the adaptive radiation of three-spine sticklebacks. We compared the behavior of fathers across multiple ancestral (marine) and derived (freshwater) stickleback populations that differ in time since establishment. We measured behavioral plasticity in fathers in response to a predator found only in freshwater environments, simulating conditions marine males experience when colonizing freshwater. The antipredator behavior of males from newly estab

SUBMITTER: Stein LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6542286 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature