Interspecific interactions and evolution in a community context
Evolution in lake communities of southern Greenland
Disentangling the effect of a particular biotic interaction on adaptation remains difficult in wild populations due to the complex nature of interspecific interactions in natural food webs. Freshwater lakes in southern Greenland contain relatively simple food webs with only two fish species: threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus). The presence or absence of these two species creates four distinct lake types (i.e. lakes with one fish species, lakes with both fish species, and lakes with no fish), with lakes of each type found numerous times across the landscape. Zooplankton communities, zooplankton phenotypes, and stickleback phenotypes are noticeably different among lakes. I am studying the impact of predation on the ecological and evolutionary responses of prey species: the direct effects of char on stickleback and stickleback on zooplankton (particularly the copepod Leptodiaptomus minutus), and the indirect effects of char on zooplankton.
