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Temporal Patterns Of Armor And Body Shape Evolution Of The Threespine Stickleback In Scout Lake, Alaska, James Patrick Keogh

Biology

Invasive predators can have devastating ecological and evolutionary impacts on native prey species within the ecosystems they invade. These effects may be particularly pronounced when the predator is novel to the prey, a situation that is on-going in southcentral Alaska, where the large and voracious northern pike are invading the native range of the threespine stickleback. In this area, pike have caused the extirpation of several populations of stickleback, yet in some instances stickleback have persisted. Here, we report on phenotypic changes following introduction of pike into Scout Lake, Alaska, in which the stickleback persisted.