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By studying the stickleback fish and how it has adapted to lake and stream environments, Andrew Hendry, an evolutionary biologist, has made advances in solving a debate within the evolutionary biology field.

Currently, evolutionary biologists are debating between two theories that outline how animals adapt to differing environments. In one camp, biologists believe that genetic adaptation is the result of many genes, each having a more minor effect. Others believe, however, that adaptation is caused by just a few genes having a much larger effect.

By studying the stickleback in British Columbia, Canada, Hendry has determined that evolutionary differences between the lake and stream sticklebacks can be linked to more than a dozen loci (the location of a gene on a chromosome).

This finding supports the “many genes, smaller effect” school of thought.

To read more about the stickleback study, go to the ScienceDaily article.