10.5061/DRYAD.5R0Q8
Brock, Chad D.
University of Wyoming
The University of Texas at Austin
Cummings, Molly E.
The University of Texas at Austin
Bolnick, Daniel I.
The University of Texas at Austin
Data from: Phenotypic plasticity drives a depth gradient in male
conspicuousness in threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus
Dryad
dataset
2017
Signaling/Courtship
Selection - Sexual
2017-05-30T03:18:49Z
2017-05-30T03:18:49Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13282
367882 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Signal evolution is thought to depend on both a signal's
detectability or conspicuousness (signal design) as well as any
extractable information it may convey to a potential receiver (signal
content). While theoretical and empirical work in sexual selection has
largely focused on signal content, there has been a steady accrual of
evidence that signal design is also important for trait evolution. Despite
this, relatively little attention has been paid to spatial variation in
the conspicuousness of a given signal, especially over small spatial
scales (relative to an organism's dispersal distance). Here, we show
that visual signals of male threespine stickleback vary in
conspicuousness, depending on a male's nest depth within a given
lake. Deeper-nesting males were typically more chromatically conspicuous
than shallow nesting males. This trend is partly because all male
stickleback are more conspicuous in deep optical environments. However,
deep males are even more conspicuous than environmentally-driven null
expectations, while shallow males tend to be disproportionally cryptic.
Experimental manipulation of male nesting depth induced plastic changes in
nuptial color that replicated the natural gradients in conspicuousness. We
discuss a number of potential mechanisms that could produce depth
gradients in conspicuousness in male stickleback, including concomitant
depth gradients in diet, predation pressure, male/female density, female
preference and opportunity for sexual selection.
DOWN_IRRVMDownwelling irradiance measurements for all lakes and depths.