Multivariate differentiation of parapatric and allopatric populations of threespine stickleback in the Sangan River watershed, Queen Charlotte Islands

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Abstract
A discriminant analysis was made of 17 morphometric and 10 meristic characters in the freshwater form (leiurus) of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) from 16 localities in the Sangan River System on the Queen Charlotte archipelago and in the presumed ancestral form (trachurus) from a nearby locality in marine waters. While multivariate means were significantly different between trachurus and leiurus, there was even greater differentiation between the leiurus populations found in lakes, ponds, and streams, divergence which was independent of geographical distance between localities. Statistical removal of meristics, removal of body length, log transformation and size standardization of all morphometries did not substantially alter the discrimination of the populations. Two of the leiurus populations that overlap in a narrow zone appear to have achieved reproductive isolation.