Nest sites of the threespine stickleback: Can site characters alone protect the nest against egg predators and are nest sites a limiting resource?

Abstract

In a field population of Gasterosteus aculeatus, analysis of the patterns of nest destruction following removal of males indicated that nest site variables per se offered little protection against egg predation in the absence of paternal defense. These experiments also indicated that male breeding densities were not limited by a lack of space for territories. We suggest that site quality and male quality, which is determined in part by the quality of parental defense, interact to determine the number of eggs a male can hatch.