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Salinity Preference Of Alaskan Threespine Stickleback: Test For Divergence In Halotaxis Between Ancestral And Landlocked Populations, David Fryxell, Eric T. Schultz

EEB Articles

Glacial retreat during the Pleistocene caused landlocking of anadromous Alaskan threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, furnishing a natural ‘experiment’ in osmoregulatory divergence. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of individual acclimation and population divergence on salinity preference. Full-sibling families of marine, anadromous, and freshwater-landlocked populations of stickleback were reared in common environments until 3 weeks post-hatch, then were split and acclimated to low or high salinity. At 6 to 8 weeks of age the six experimental groups were tested for salinity preference in a tank that offers fish a choice of compartments with different salinities arranged …