title: Pike Esox lucius as an emerging model organism for studies in ecology and evolutionary biology: a review.
abstract: The pike Esox lucius is a large, long-lived, iteroparous, top- predator fish species with a circumpolar distribution that occupies a broad range of aquatic environments. This study reports on a literature search and demonstrates that the publication rate of E. lucius research increases both in absolute terms and relative to total scientific output, and that the focus of investigation has changed over time from being dominated by studies on physiology and disease to being gradually replaced by studies on ecology and evolution. Esox lucius can be exploited as a model in future research for identifying causes and consequences of phenotypic and genetic variation at the levels of individuals, populations and species as well as for investigating community processes.
authors.affiliation: Evolution in Microbial Model Systems, EEMiS, Department of Biology, Environmental Science, Linnaeus University, SE-391 82, Kalmar, Sweden.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Forsman
authors.affiliation: Evolution in Microbial Model Systems, EEMiS, Department of Biology, Environmental Science, Linnaeus University, SE-391 82, Kalmar, Sweden.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tibblin
authors.affiliation: Evolution in Microbial Model Systems, EEMiS, Department of Biology, Environmental Science, Linnaeus University, SE-391 82, Kalmar, Sweden.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Berggren
authors.affiliation: Evolution in Microbial Model Systems, EEMiS, Department of Biology, Environmental Science, Linnaeus University, SE-391 82, Kalmar, Sweden.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nordahl
authors.affiliation: Evolution in Microbial Model Systems, EEMiS, Department of Biology, Environmental Science, Linnaeus University, SE-391 82, Kalmar, Sweden.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Koch-Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Evolution in Microbial Model Systems, EEMiS, Department of Biology, Environmental Science, Linnaeus University, SE-391 82, Kalmar, Sweden.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Larsson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015706:Bibliometrics; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004463:Ecology; D017859:Esocidae / Q000502:physiology*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D010641:Phenotype
keywords: Esocidae; adaptation; behaviour; evolution; fish; genetics