User:Elioeilish/Stickleback

Eco-evolutionary dynamics - Draft
Three-spined stickleback research has been central to the field of eco-evolutionary dynamics. Eco-evolutionary dynamics is an area of study investigating how ecological processes (e.g., population dynamics, community interactions, and nutrient cycling) affect how populations evolve, and in turn, how these patterns of evolution feed back to affect ecological processes. Importantly, these dynamics arise when substantial evolutionary change occurs on the same time scale as ecological change (i.e., less than 1,000 generations). Three-spined stickleback populations are particularly useful for studying eco-evolutionary dynamics because they have evolved rapidly and in predictable, repeated patterns after colonizing new environments. These repeated patterns of evolution allow scientists to assess whether the impacts of stickleback evolution on ecological processes are reproduceable.

An eco-evolutionary framework has been used to explore multiple aspects of stickleback biology. Notably, this research has focused on how populations of three-spined stickleback have diverged to occupy different ecological niches (a process called adaptive radiation) and how sticklebacks have coevolved with their parasites.

Eco-evolutionary dynamics of adaptive radiation
Most eco-evolutionary dynamics research in sticklebacks has focused on how the adaptive radiation of different ecotypes affects ecological processes. Ecotypes represent genetically and morphologically recognizable populations that occupy distinct ecological niches. In three-spined stickleback, divergent ecotypes are often found as sympatric (i.e., co-occurring) or parapatric (i.e., partially overlapping, but mostly isolated) species pairs, including benthic—limnetic pairs, freshwater—anadromous pairs , and lake—stream pairs. Pairs of stickleback ecotypes have diverged at time scales ranging from 10,000 years to only decades ago.

Different combinations of stickleback ecotypes affect ecosystem processes in different ways. For example, the combined presence of benthic and limnetic sticklebacks has a different effect on the diversity and abundance of prey species compared to the generalist ancestral stickleback ecotype. Notably, this effect appears to be driven by limnetic sticklebacks specializing on zooplankton prey, rather than an increase in the number of stickleback species alone. The impacts of ecotype specialization on prey communities can even affect the abundance of algae and cyanobacteria that do not directly interact with sticklebacks, along with aspects of the abiotic environment, such as the amount of ambient light available for photosynthesis and levels of dissolved oxygen , carbon , and phosphorus. Because these diverse ecological impacts can persist to affect natural selection on subsequent stickleback generations, the adaptive radiation of specialized ecotypes could drive eco-evolutionary feedback loops in natural populations.

Eco-evolutionary dynamics of host-parasite interactions
Sticklebacks have also been studied to investigate the eco-evolutionary dynamics of host-parasite coevolution. Three-spined sticklebacks can be hosts to a variety of parasites (e.g., Schistocephalus solidus, a common tapeworm of fish and fish-eating birds ), and the diversity of parasite species within individual sticklebacks is influenced by an individual’s dietary niche and immune response. This covariation between parasite infection and host traits is likely a consequence of eco-evolutionary feedback, whereby the evolution of dietary and parasite resistance traits in sticklebacks alters parasite reproduction and infection rates, which in turn affects parasite exposure and selection on parasite resistance in sticklebacks. These feedbacks can also extend beyond stickleback-parasite interactions to modify ecosystem processes. Specifically, differences in resistance and infection rates among stickleback ecotypes can alter how sticklebacks affect the abundance of prey species and levels of dissolved nutrients and oxygen. These ecosystem impacts can further affect selection on sticklebacks in subsequent generations, which suggests a complex feedback loop between the evolution of host-parasite interactions, community composition, and abiotic conditions.

Common methods
Many researchers have used mesocosm experiments to test how the adaptive radiation of stickleback ecotypes and stickleback-parasite interactions can impact ecological processes. In these experiments, researchers simulate the natural environments of sticklebacks in enclosed tanks, including natural plant and invertebrate communities and freshwater ecological zones. They then systematically manipulate an independent variable (e.g., which stickleback ecotypes were present or the presence of parasites), and measured differences biotic and abiotic aspects of ecosystems among the different stickleback treatments.

Notes:

The Three-spined stickleback page has a one sentence "Parasites" section that just lists one example of a parasite that infects sticklebacks. I will remove that section and instead include that parasite as an example in the section on eco-evo dynamics of host-parasite interactions.

This section will actually be included in the page Three-spined stickleback, not Stickleback. The Three-spined stickleback article already describes some of the ecotypes mentioned here, but does not discuss eco-evolutionary dynamics.

Peer Review
Hey Noah, I really enjoyed reading your article, and I think I learned a lot from it. I liked how you elaborated on the nature of eco-evolutionary dynamics in the first paragraph, which was helpful as someone who doesn’t know too much about the subject, and I also liked that you included a section on parasitism, since I don’t usually see a lot of evolutionary mutualistic examples involving parasitic relationships.

When you use the term ‘mesocosm,’ I would suggest defining what that is exactly within the article. It’s good that you added a link to explain the term, but it’s a word you use repeatedly throughout the article and isn’t elaborated on outside of the link, and I don’t think that it’s a term that people without previous experience with it would recognize. I would also suggest doing the same with ‘ecotype’- it’s a rather important term in relation to the topic you’re writing about, but isn’t something the average joe would know without referencing something else. Nothing major, just briefly mention what the two terms mean when you introduce them.

Structure-wise, I can’t tell if the paragraph on host-parasite interactions is meant to be a subsection to the paragraph on mesocosm experiments, since you tied it back to the previous paragraph halfway through. I would also suggest adding an example in that paragraph, the way you did in the second paragraph.

-Hannah

Eco-evolutionary dynamics - Outline

 * 1) Ecological effects of adaptive radiation:
 * 2) Mesocosm experiments show:
 * 3) Different ecotypes have different impacts on trophic communities and abiotic conditions.
 * 4) Phenotypical plasticity of each ecotype also affects ecosystem processes.
 * 5) The reverse of diversification/adaptive radiation, introgression, also affects ecological processes, but ecosystems do not revert completely to pre-diversification states.
 * 6) References: Rudman & Schluter 2016, Behm et al. 2010, Mathews et al. 2016, Harmon et al. 2009, Beckerman et al. 2016, Hendry et al. 2013, Furin et al. 2012, Berner et al. 2010, Bell et al. 2013, Eklöf et al. 2020
 * 7) Ecological effects of host-parasite dynamics:
 * 8) Parasite presence/parasite load can influence eco-evolutionary dynamics in different stickleback ecotypes.
 * 9) Trait variation in hosts (sticklebacks) can also shape parasite communities, with scale-dependent effects.
 * 10) References: Hendry et al. 2013, Brunner et al. 2017, Weber et al. 2017, Bolnick et al. 2020
 * 11) In turn, ecology affects stickleback evolution:
 * 12) Ecosystem size shapes whether the generalist, benthic, or limnetic ecotypes are favored.
 * 13) Ecosystem size also affects if and which predators are present, which influences the evolution of antipredatory traits in stickleback.
 * 14) Sticklebacks also influence predator populations by predating juvenile predators. The relationship between the ecological “dominance” of stickleback verses their predators follows spatial and temporal gradients.
 * 15) References: Wasserman et al. 2020, Eklöf et al. 2020, Bolnick & Ballare 2020                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Hi Noah,

Consider having an introductory paragraph about eco-evo dynamics in stickleback, and then use the adaptive radiations and host-parasites as illustrations of these. One thing that will be challenging for you in this article is to use terminology that is accessible to the public. Some of the first section is a bit vague, so it is difficult to provide specific feedback, but in general it sounds like you are looking at how longer-term evolutionary processes affect ecology in part 1, and then perhaps shorter term evolutionary processes in part 2. This makes sense, and I suggest you make it clear that these are on different timescales, which might help illustrate that eco-evo dynamics happen at different timescales.

I wonder if starting out with ecology affecting evolution might be a better first section. It is the one that most folks are most familiar with, and would set up the contrast for the other side of things that people think a little less about.

FYI. Introgression is not the reverse of adaptive radiation/diversification. It may have more homogenizing effects, but just take care with how you present it!

Looking forward to seeing your article develop! (4/5) Evol&#38;Glass (talk) 18:05, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

b.     Ecosystem size also affects if and which predators are present, which influences the evolution of antipredatory traits in stickleback.

c.      Sticklebacks also influence predator populations by predating juvenile predators. The relationship between the ecological “dominance” of stickleback verses their predators follows spatial and temporal gradients.

d.     References: Wasserman et al. 2020, Eklöf et al. 2020, Bolnick & Ballare 2020