Evolutionary Ecology

Fieldwork

June 2023: The Magnificent Seven: our 2023 field crew in Alaska was truly magnificent, processing hundreds of fish a day, (almost) always with a smile on their faces!
June 2023: Or maybe the smiles were just because the PIs were there! At least we tried to keep everyone fed and entertained.
May 2023: Nicole Nesvadba gets crafty while trapping sticklebacks at Oyster Lagoon, British Columbia.
Alaska QTL team 2022
June 2022: Many thanks to the fabulous team who collected thousands of fish for QTL mapping in the Alaskan FITNESS project: Hiranya Sudasinghe, Zuyao Liu, Åsa Lind, and Lucas Eckert!
Alaska QTL team in the lab
June 2022: Here's the QTL team hard at work in the "lab" on the shores of Hope Lake, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska.
Hiranya and Zuyao in canoe 2022
June 2022: Hiranya hides from the mosquitos while paddling with Zuyao in search of sticklebacks. Despite padding with a dislocated shoulder, Hiranya says it's much easier to catch sticklebacks in Alaska than any fish in Sri Lanka!
Katie Peichel inversion ponds 2022
May 2022: Katie starts a new experiment to look at selection on inversions in Dolph Schluter's freshwater pond facility at the University of British Columbia. She happily spent her sabbatical catching and genotyping around 1000 sticklebacks to find marine fish that are heterozygous for the marine and freshwater orientations of the inversions on chromosomes XI and XXI. She will follow the frequencies of these inversions over the next four years as part of her Swiss National Science Foundation grant. We can't wait to see what happens!
Alaska summer 2019
June 2019: Summer on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. This is the site of the greatest eco-evolutionary experiment ever! We are participating in a huge collaborative project in which sticklebacks from eight donor lakes are being transplanted into eight empty lakes. Over the next few years to decades, we can watch the sticklebacks evolve, see how their evolution affects the ecosystem, and how this might feedback on the sticklebacks. Stay tuned!
Matt Josephson Alaska 2019
June 2019: Matt Josephson multi-tasking to get 10,000 sticklebacks transplanted into eight empty lakes in Alaska...
Luis Bärtschi Alaska 2019
June 2019: ...while Luis Bärtschi relaxes back at the camp.
Blackwater Stream
June 2019: Blackwater stream, Vancouver Island, Canada. This transition between the lake and stream is where Marius Roesti will do his big experiment to identify the genetic and genomic basis of differences in habitat preference between lake and stream sticklebacks!
Blackwater Lake
June 2019: Blackwater lake, Vancouver Island, Canada. Marius surveys the lake from his kayak.
Field gear
June 2019: Field gear. Apparently, Marius thinks he can catch sticklebacks with a fishing rod.
Turtle
June 2019: Marius discovers an unusual red-throated male stickleback on Vancouver Island, Canada.
September 2017: Hilary Poore relaxes after a long day in the field on Vancouver Island, Canada.
September 2017: Hilary Poore relaxes after a long day in the field on Vancouver Island, Canada.
June 2017: Matt Josephson searches for blackspotted sticklebacks in Newfoundland, Canada.
June 2017: Matt Josephson searches for blackspotted sticklebacks in Newfoundland, Canada.
July 2015: Sophie Archambeault gets into the mud in Quilcene Bay, Washington, USA.
July 2015: Sophie Archambeault gets into the mud in Quilcene Bay, Washington, USA.
A rare sunny day at Roberts Lake, Vancouver Island, Canada.
A rare sunny day at Roberts Lake, Vancouver Island, Canada.
June 2013: Throwing traps to catch sticklebacks at Roberts Lake, Vancouver Island, Canada.
June 2013: Throwing traps to catch sticklebacks at Roberts Lake, Vancouver Island, Canada.
June 2013: Processing lake and stream sticklebacks in the field on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
June 2013: Processing lake and stream sticklebacks in the field on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
June 2013: Katie Peichel making crosses in the field with Carole Tanner and Dieta Hanson near Roberts Lake, Vancouver Island, Canada.
June 2013: Katie Peichel making crosses in the field with Carole Tanner and Dieta Hanson near Roberts Lake, Vancouver Island, Canada.
May 2013: Collecting sticklebacks in Akkeshi, Hokkaido, Japan.
May 2013: Collecting sticklebacks in Akkeshi, Hokkaido, Japan. Jun Kitano, Katie Peichel, Manabu Kume, Mark Kirkpatrick (back L to R), Mark Ravinet, Asano Ishikawa, Kohta Yoshida (front L to R).
May 2012: Mike White and Shaun McCann show us how to canoe on Texada Island, British Columbia, Canada.
May 2012: Mike White and Shaun McCann show us how to canoe on Texada Island, British Columbia, Canada.
May 2008: Mission Impossible begins.
May 2008: Mission Impossible begins. Katie Peichel and Matt Arnegard put F1 hybrids into Dolph Schluter's ponds at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
May 2007: Katie Peichel and Jenny Boughman collect male colour data on Enos Lake, British Columbia, Canada.
May 2007: Katie Peichel and Jenny Boughman collect male colour data on Enos Lake, British Columbia, Canada.