Designing eco-evolutionary experiments for restoration projects: Opportunities and constraints revealed during Stickleback introductions

Eco-evolutionary experiments are typically conducted in semi-unnatural controlled settings, such as mesocosms; yet inferences about how evolution and ecology interact in the real world would surely benefit from experiments in natural uncontrolled settings. Opportunities for such experiments are rare but do arise in the context of restoration ecology – where different “types” of a given species can be introduced into different “replicate” locations. Designing such experiments requires wrestling with consequential questions. Q1. Which specific “types” of a focal species should be introduced to the restoration location? Q2. How many sources of each type should be used – and should they be mixed together? Q3. Which specific source populations should be used? Q4. Which type or population(s) should be introduced into which restoration sites? We recently grappled with these questions when designing an eco-evolutionary experiment with threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) introduced i..., , , # Designing Eco-Evolutionary Experiments for Restoration Projects: Opportunities and Constraints Revealed During Stickleback Introductions. \[threespine stickleback phenotype and site data]

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rn8pk0pkx](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rn8pk0pkx)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data includes three CSV files: the first two include individual phenotype data of threespine stickleback fish, and the third includes environmental data describing the lakes at the study sites, which was only used for the geographic coordinates to make the map.

* \"AKStickleData - Sheet1_5-19-19.csv\" 
FishID - ID number unique to each fish
Lake - Name of lake where fish was captured
Mass_g - Wet mass of fish after preservation in EtOH (g)
Ectoparasites_YN - presence of obvious external parasites (not used in publication)
SL_mm - standard length: from tip of snout to base of posterior-most caudal fin ray (mm)
BodyDepth - depth of fish as measured from base of ...