Eco-Evolutionary Feedbacks Drive Niche Differentiation in the Alewife

Schielke, Erika G.; Palkovacs, Eric P.; Post, David M.

doi:10.1007/s13752-012-0031-9

Cited by 25 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Coastal New England lakes harbour either anadromous, landlocked or no populations of alewives, where landlocked populations have diverged from the ancestral anadromous forms in their adaptation to the lake environment 31,32,46 . We sampled 12 lakes in Connecticut and Massachusetts ( Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergence of a novel prey life history promotes contemporary sympatric diversification in a top predator

2015

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Intraspecific phenotypic variation can strongly impact community and ecosystem dynamics. Effects of intraspecific variation in keystone species have been shown to propagate down through the food web by altering the adaptive landscape for other species and creating a cascade of ecological and evolutionary change. However, similar bottom-up eco-evolutionary effects are poorly described. Here we show that life history diversification in a keystone prey species, the alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), propagates up through the food web to promote phenotypic diversification in its native top predator, the chain pickerel (Esox niger), on contemporary timescales. The landlocking of alewife by human dam construction has repeatedly created a stable open water prey resource, novel to coastal lakes, that has promoted the parallel emergence of a habitat polymorphism in chain pickerel. Understanding how strong interactions propagate through food webs to influence diversification across multiple trophic levels is critical to understand eco-evolutionary interactions in complex natural ecosystems.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergence of a novel prey life history promotes contemporary sympatric diversification in a top predator

2015

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“…The resulting landlocked populations shape zooplankton communities differently than do anadromous populations that are only present in lakes for part of the year, leading to reciprocal selection and repeated parallel evolution of landlocked foraging traits, including narrower gill raker spacing. [90][91][92] These eco-evolutionary feedbacks would not have been apparent by just comparing landlocked populations. The key for elucidating cryptic eco-evolutionary dynamics associated with parallel or convergent evolution is to recognize that the critical comparison is between contemporary and ancestral genotypes (and phenotypes) and that comparisons among derived populations may not be a good indicator of those rates or patterns.…”

Section: Cryptic By Genes To Phenotypesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cryptic eco‐evolutionary dynamics

Kinnison

Hairston

Hendry

2015

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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Natural systems harbor complex interactions that are fundamental parts of ecology and evolution. These interactions challenge our inclinations and training to seek the simplest explanations of patterns in nature. Not least is the likelihood that some complex processes might be missed when their patterns look similar to predictions for simpler mechanisms. Along these lines, theory and empirical evidence increasingly suggest that environmental, ecological, phenotypic, and genetic processes can be tightly intertwined, resulting in complex and sometimes surprising eco-evolutionary dynamics. The goal of this review is to temper inclinations to unquestioningly seek the simplest explanations in ecology and evolution, by recognizing that some eco-evolutionary outcomes may appear very similar to purely ecological, purely evolutionary, or even null expectations, and thus be cryptic. We provide theoretical and empirical evidence for observational biases and mechanisms that might operate among the various links in eco-evolutionary feedbacks to produce cryptic patterns. Recognition that cryptic dynamics can be associated with outcomes like stability, resilience, recovery, or coexistence in a dynamically changing world provides added impetus for finding ways to study them.

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“…In lakes in southern Connecticut, landlocked alewife were isolated from anadromous populations 300–500 years ago, likely as a result of colonial dam construction (Palkovacs et al., ; Twining & Post, ). Landlocked alewife populations have rapidly evolved ecological and evolutionary differences from anadromous alewife during this relatively short period of reproductive isolation (Jones et al., ; Palkovacs, Mandeville, & Post, ; Palkovacs & Post, ; Post, Palkovacs, Schielke, & Dodson, ; Schielke, Palkovacs, & Post, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the potential for prezygotic isolation and hybridization between landlocked and anadromous alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) following secondary contact

Littrell

Ellis

Gephard

et al. 2018

Evolutionary Applications

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The recent increase in river restoration projects is altering habitat connectivity for many aquatic species, increasing the chance that previously isolated populations will come into secondary contact. Anadromous and landlocked alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) are currently undergoing secondary contact as a result of a fishway installation at Rogers Lake in Old Lyme, Connecticut. To determine the degree of prezygotic isolation and potential for hybridization between alewife life history forms, we constructed spawning time distributions for two anadromous and three landlocked alewife populations using otolith‐derived age estimates. In addition, we analyzed long‐term data from anadromous alewife migratory spawning runs to look for trends in arrival date and spawning time. Our results indicated that anadromous alewife spawned earlier and over a shorter duration than landlocked alewife, but 3%–13% of landlocked alewife spawning overlapped with the anadromous alewife spawning period. The degree of spawning time overlap was primarily driven by annual and population‐level variation in the timing of spawning by landlocked alewife, whereas the timing and duration of spawning for anadromous alewife were found to be relatively invariant among years in our study system. For alewife and many other anadromous fish species, the increase in fish passage river restoration projects in the coming decades will re‐establish habitat connectivity and may bring isolated populations into contact. Hybridization between life history forms may occur when prezygotic isolating mechanisms are minimal, leading to potentially rapid ecological and evolutionary changes in restored habitats.

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Eco-Evolutionary Feedbacks Drive Niche Differentiation in the Alewife

Cited by 25 publications

References 47 publications

Emergence of a novel prey life history promotes contemporary sympatric diversification in a top predator

Emergence of a novel prey life history promotes contemporary sympatric diversification in a top predator

Cryptic eco‐evolutionary dynamics

Evaluating the potential for prezygotic isolation and hybridization between landlocked and anadromous alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) following secondary contact

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