This is the main Schluter lab page. It
shows our main study species and facilities, and links to
other
lab information pages.
Study species
Most lab members presently
work on the threespine
stickleback, a small fish that inhabits coastal lakes and streams and
adjacent marine waters. Threespine stickleback occurs
widely in coastal areas of the northern hemisphere, but the species
complex reaches the height of its diversity in British Columbia. The
photo below shows a male of the benthic species from Paxton Lake,
Texada
Island, BC. He is guarding a family of stickleback fry that hatched a
few days previously. A second stickleback species, the Paxton Lake
limnetic, occurs in the same lake. Much of our work has been focused on
these stickleback species pairs.
Lab members have also worked on a
variety of other study systems, including birds,
primates, stick insects, reef fish, and electric fish.
Wet lab facilities
Our wet lab consists of several air-conditioned wet rooms and
controlled-temperature environment chambers containing hundreds of
aquariums. Mostly they contain stickleback.
Experimental ponds
Old Experimental Ponds
This outdoor facility is located on the South Campus of the University
of
British Columbia. The site contains 13 ponds constructed in 1991. Each
pond is 23 x 23 m
2 with a bottom that slopes
gradually from 0 m at the edges to 3 m deep in the center. The ponds
were constructed in 1991 and then seeded with plants and invertebrates
from Paxton Lake, Texada Island, British Columbia, an 11-ha lake
containing a benthic-limnetic stickleback species pair. The ponds are
lined with polyethylene overlaid with 0.25 m of sand, and are bordered
with limestone extracted from surface mines near Paxton Lake. Apart
from their construction, initialization, and use in prior experiments,
the ponds are unmanipulated environments. We have ongoing
experiments in these ponds, but the days of the facility are numbered.
In a couple of years we will be shifting to the new
experimental pond facility being constructed nearby (see below).
New Experimental Ponds
This facility was completed in 2008. It includes 20
ponds, each 25 x
15 m
2.
Each pond will contain a shallow littoral area at one end, and a hole 6
m deep at the other. The littoral area contains a layer of sand and
limestone gravel extracted from surface mines near Paxton Lake, Texada
Island.
Cattle tanks
The new experimental pond facility includes 60
rubber barrels, each 2 m in diameter, for experimental studies of
aquatic organisms.
