Research will focus on establishing the genetic basis of the between lake morphological differences in Bluegill populations. Larvae from in vitro crosses made with the Canadian study populations will be transported to "common garden" ponds at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. These genetically marked individuals (with mtDNA and isozyme markers) will be reared in vegetated and open water habitats and their morphological development will be measured. This study will demonstrate unambiguously whether the inter-lake components of morphological divergence are due to underlying genetic variation or the result of environmental induction of phenotype working on a common, plastic genotype.
