Habitat Choice and Female Preference in a Polymorphic Stickleback Population

Feller, Anna Fiona; Seehausen, Ole; Lucek, Kay Jurka Olaf; Marques, David Alexander (2016). Habitat Choice and Female Preference in a Polymorphic Stickleback Population (In Press). Evolutionary ecology research Evolutionary Ecology

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Background: A small pond, c. 90 years old, near Bern, Switzerland contains a population of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) with two distinct male phenotypes. Males of one type are large, and red, and nest in the shallow littoral zone. The males of
the other are small and orange, and nest offshore at slightly greater depth. The females in this population are phenotypically highly variable but cannot easily be assigned to either
male type.
Question: Is the existence of two sympatric male morphs maintained by substrate-associated male nest site choice and facilitated by female mate preferences?
Organisms: Male stickleback caught individually at their breeding sites. Females caught with minnow traps.
Methods: In experimental tanks, we simulated the slope and substrate of the two nesting habitats. We then placed individual males in a tank and observed in which habitat the
male would build his nest. In a simultaneous two-stimulus choice design, we gave females the choice between a large, red male and a small, orange one. We measured female morphology and used linear mixed effect models to determine whether female preference correlated with female morphology.
Results: Both red and orange males preferred nesting in the habitat that simulated the
slightly deeper offshore condition. This is the habitat occupied by the small, orange males in the pond itself. The proportion of females that chose a small orange male was similar to that which chose a large red male. Several aspects of female phenotype correlated with the male type that a female preferred.

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