The Evolutionary Biology of the Threespine Stickleback

About the Book

The threespine stickleback is a small fish of temperate coastal and fresh waters. It exhibits extraordinary phenotypic diversity throughout its range, and is remarkably amenable to observation in the field and manipulation in the laboratory. This volume incorporates reviews from active workers who use the threespine stickleback to address a broad variety of evolutionary issues, ranging from optimal foraging to armour, from speciation to the endocrine basis for correlated behavioural characters. It highlights the fundamental insights into evolutionary processes that have emerged from these studies.

Table of Contents:
Introduction to the evolutionary biology of the threespine stickleback. 1: Systematics and morphology of the Gasterosteiformes. 2: Allozyme variation of the Gasterosteus aculeatus complex. 3: Physiological ecology and evolution. 4: Energy allocation. 5: Life history variation in females. 6: Ecology on the breeding grounds. 7: Evolution of foraging behaviour. 8: Predators and morphological evolution. 9: Adaptive variation in antipredator behaviour. 10: Proximate determinants of stickleback behaviour. 11: Evolution of aggresive behaviour. 12: Evolution of reproductive behaviour. 13: Speciation and the evolution of reproductive isolation in the sticklebacks of south-western British Columbia. 14: Palaeobiology and evolution. 15: Evolutionary inference: the value of viewing evolution through stickleback-tinted glasses. References. Author index. Subject index

Review :
"This book is one of the best-edited books it has been my pleasure to read. Students who study it will find an abundance of unanswered questions, with easy access to the literature that leads to those questions. Bell and Foster have provided the scientific community with a springboard for further research. They have helped make the stickleback a model system for research in evolutionary biology." --George W. Barlow, Quarterly Review of Biology

"We are very impressed with the book overall. Without question, it is an essential possession for any stickleback biologist." -- Copeia

"I do not have the space to identify the many highlights of this excellent book, but cannot conclude without saying that the editors are to be congratulated for producing a volume in which the writing is of a uniformly high standard and where the sections are well-integrated and cross-referenced. I recommend it not only to stickleback enthusiasts but also to anyone who enjoys the intellectual challenge of solving the enigmas of the evolutionary process." --Anne Magurran Trends in Ecology and Evolution

"Variation among threespine-stickleback populations is nicely introduced by Bell and Foster in their introductory chapter to this book, and they use this chapter to provide a useful overview of stickleback biology." --Science

"The Editors set out to develop a publication that would combine the consistency and coverage of a single-author book with the depth of knowledge and critical judgement that specialists could bring to their subjects. To their credit the editors succeeded admirably. The result is an excellent compendium of knowledge about a popular research organism. The format is attractive and the pen-and-ink illustrations are of high quality. Recommended for upper-division undergraduate and graduate students and their faculty." --Science and Technology

"The underlying aim is to review the evolutionary history and adaptiveness of biological traits and structural features of the three-spined stickleback, but original research is described in several chapters. The contents deal with a number of major topics in the adaptive profile of the species, and basic issues are summarized in a good introduction by the editors.... Apart from being a useful contribution to the evolutionary literature in general, the wider value of this very comprehensive book for fish biologists is that it draws attention to the high degree of diversity and variation which might be found in a species once this is subjected to intensive study." --Journal of Fish Biology

"To find this book on my desl was a great surprise, but as it soon appeared a pleasant one. Though I knew it was coming, I had not expected this size (565 pages!) and this exhaustive, profound treatment of the subject....I have no doubt that for years to come, this book will be a source of information and inspiration. Both inside and outside the layout is serious, but pleasant. The book has a solid appearance, and quite in accordance with its contents, looks respectable." --Fish Biology and Fisheries

"Thoroughly cross-referenced volume with a minimum of duplication. This is certainly much more than a "stickleback book", because it tackles issues, if not examples, of broad interest to evolutionary ecologists."--John D. Reynolds

"The editors succeeded admirably. The result is an excellent compendium of knowledge about a popular research organism. The format is attractive and the pen-and-ink illustrations are of high quality."--Choice

"This book is important because of its exhaustive coverage of virtually every aspect of the biology of a well-studied species." --Ecology