Ecological constraint, rather than opportunity, promotes adaptive radiation in three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) on North Uist.

ABSTRACT: The context and cause of adaptive radiations have been widely described and explored but why rapid evolutionary diversification does not occur in related evolutionary lineages has yet to be understood. The standard answer is that evolutionary diversification is provoked by ecological opportunity and that some lineages do not encounter the opportunity. Three-spined sticklebacks on the Scottish island of North Uist show enormous diversification, which seems to be associated with the diversity of aquatic habitats. Sticklebacks on the neighboring island of South Uist have not been reported to show the same level of evolutionary diversity, despite levels of environmental variation that we might expect to be similar to North Uist. In this study, we compared patterns of morphological and environm

SUBMITTER: Begum M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9831901 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature