Data from: The ecological stage changes benefits of mate choice and drives preference divergence

Preference divergence is thought to contribute to reproductive isolation.
Ecology can alter the way selection acts on female preferences, making
them most likely to diverge when ecological conditions vary among
populations. We present a novel mechanism for ecologically dependent
sexual selection, termed ‘the ecological stage’ to highlight its
ecological dependence. Our hypothesized mechanism emphasizes that males
and females interact over mating in a specific ecological context, and
different ecological conditions change the costs and benefits of mating
interactions, selecting for different preferences in distinct environments
and different male traits, especially when traits are condition dependent.
We test key predictions of this mechanism in a sympatric threespine
stickleback species pair. We used a maternal half-sib split-clutch design
for both species, mating females to attractive and unattractive males, and
raising progeny on alternate diets that mimic the specialized diets of the
species in nature. We estimated the benefits of mate choice for an
indicator trait (male nuptial color) by measuring many fitness components
across the lifetimes of both sons and daughters from these crosses. We
analyzed fitness data using a combination of aster and mixed models. We
found that many benefits of mating with high color males depended on both
species and diet. These results support the ecological stage hypothesis
for stickleback. Finally, we discuss the potential role of this mechanism
for other taxa and highlight its ability to enhance reproductive isolation
as speciation proceeds, thus facilitating the evolution of strong
reproductive isolation.