Determinants of growth and body size in Austrolebias South-American annual killifish
Helmstetter, A. J.; Van Dooren, T. J.
Show abstract
Patterns of size variation in fish are supposed to be generated by growth differences, not by egg or hatchling size variation. However, annual killifish live in temporary ponds with a limited time period available for growth and reproduction. It has therefore been hypothesized that among annual killifish, hatchling size variation should be of large relative importance to generate adaptive adult size variation. Using growth curves of 203 individuals from 18 Austrolebias species raised in a common environment, we demonstrate that hatchling size variation indeed is a main determinant of adult size variation in annual killifish, in agreement with the time constraint hypothesis. Furthermore, we find an increased early growth rate in piscivorous species augmenting their difference in size from small congeneric species. This should be adaptive if size differences determine predation success. Environmental effects of spatial location of the population of origin on hatchling size and growth suggest that the time constraint might be weakened in populations occurring near the Atlantic coast. Our study reveals how extreme environments demand specific life history solutions to achieve adaptive size variation and that there might be scope for local adaptations in growth trajectories.
Matching journals
The top 6 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
- Bimodal breeding phenology in the parsley frog Pelodytes punctatus as a bet-hedging strategy in an unpredictable environment despite strong priority effects 95%
- The dynamics of spawning acts by a semelparous fish and its associated energetic expenses 95%
- Habitat structural complexity increases age-class coexistence and population growth rate through relaxed cannibalism in a freshwater fish 95%
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
- Use of multimodal sensory cues in predator avoidance by wild-caught zebrafish shoals 93%
- Parallel and non-parallel divergence within polymorphic populations of brook stickleback, Culaea inconstans (Actinopterygii: Gasterosteidae) 92%
- Evidence for rapid phenotypic and behavioral change in a recently established cavefish population 92%
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.