Constraints on speciation suggested by comparing lake-stream stickleback divergence across two continents

Adaptation to ecologically distinct environments can coincide with the emergence of reproductive barriers. The outcome of this process is highly variable and can range along a continuum from weak population differentiation all the way to complete, genome-wide divergence. The factors determining how far diverging taxa will move along this continuum remain poorly understood but are most profitably investigated in taxa under replicate divergence. Here we explore determinants of progress toward speciation by comparing phenotypic and molecular divergence within young (< 150 years) lake-stream stickleback pairs from Central Europe to divergence in older (thousands of years) archetypal lake-stream pairs from Vancouver Island, Canada. We generally find relatively weak divergence in most aspects of foraging morphology (gill raker number, body shape) in the European pairs, although substantial adaptive divergence is seen in gill raker length. Combined with striking overall phenotypic differen...