Natural selection and the adaptive radiation of Haida Gwaii stickleback

Questions: What are the selective landscapes structuring inter-population variability on the Haida Gwaii archipelago? How much morphological variability is functional given the common potential for stochastic founder effects when new habitats are colonized? Organism and sites: Threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) from 56 isolated water-sheds with separate marine ancestry encompassing 102 freshwater localities ranging from large oligotrophic mountain lakes to darkly stained bog lakes and ponds on the Haida Gwaii archipelago, western Canada. Field data: Biophysical attributes of the habitat (lake volume, depth, percent light trans-mission at 400 nm, calcium availability, pH, distance to marine waters, predation regime including puncturing, compression, and grappling species), morphological traits of the fish (body size, body depth, lateral plate number and position, dorsal spine length, pelvic girdle size, ascending process height, cross-sectional diameter, basal and lateral plate structural overlap), and geographical distance between localities. Based on previous surveys in this archipelago, we predicted the greatest expression of post-capture defences in lakes with high water clarity an