Habitat deterioration relaxes resource competition and sexual selection in the threespine stickleback

The operation of sexual selection depends on ecological conditions. Thus, changes in environmental conditions because of human activities can alter the strength and direction of sexual selection, with implications for evolutionary trajectories and the viability of populations. We show that aquatic algal blooms can relax the operation of sexual selection by influencing which males are available to attract females. This is by influencing the ability of males to maintain a resource needed in mate attraction. When we exposed two competing threespine stickleback males (Gasterosteus aculeatus), whose attractiveness to females was known, to either clear or algal-turbid water, nest abandonment was more common in clear water, and it was usually the unattractive male that abandoned his nest. In turbid water, on the other hand, nest abandonments were less common and when they occurred, the probability increased that the attractive male abandoned his nest, and that the unattractive male subsequentl...