Biosciences faculty research manuscript accepted for publication
Biosciences faculty Brian Wisenden, Dan McEwen and Ellen Brisch, together with Biosciences undergraduates Tony Stumbo, Kurtis McIntire, Justin Scheierl, Jessica Aasand, Heather North, Janna Gilbertson, Diana Grant, Frantz Joseph, Emily Mammenga and Rachel Walsh had their research manuscript accepted for publication in the international peer-reviewed journal Environmental Biology of Fishes. The title of their paper is “Population-specific co-evolution of offspring antipredator competence and parental brood defense in Nicaraguan convict cichlids”.
Convict cichlids are freshwater fish with monogamous pair bonds and biparental care of their free-swimming young. This publication is a companion paper to a paper Wisenden et al. published earlier in 2015. This pair of papers represent approximately 15 years of work by undergraduate researchers, and included extensive lab work at the aquatic research facilities in Langseth Hall, and field work in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
The studies show that convict cichlids in these two populations are evolving apart from each other (incipient speciation) in response to environmental conditions that differ between the two study sites.