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125 results for “fitness consequences”
Short-term fitness consequences of parasitism depend on host genotype and within-host parasite community
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Data from: Facilitated exploitation of pollination mutualisms: fitness consequences for plants
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Individual and population fitness consequences associated with large carnivore use of residential development
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Correlates of early reproduction and apparent fitness consequences in male Soay sheep
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Data from: Parasite infections in a social carnivore: evidence of their fitness consequences and factors modulating infection load
There are substantial individual differences in parasite composition and infection load in wildlife populations. Few studies have investigated the factors shaping this heterogeneity in large wild mammals or the impact of parasite infections on Darwinian fitness, particularly in juveniles. A host's parasite composition and infection load can be shaped by factors that determine contact with infective parasite stages and those that determine the host's resistance to infection, such as abiotic and social environmental factors, and age. Host-parasite interactions and synergies between co-infecting parasites may also be important. We test predictions derived from these different processes to investigate factors shaping infection loads (faecal egg/oocyte load) of two energetically costly gastrointestinal parasites: the hookworm Ancylostoma and the intracellular Cystoisospora, in juvenile spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) in the Serengeti National Park, in Tanzania. We also assess whether parasite infections curtail survival to adulthood and longevity. Ancylostoma and Cystoisospora infection loads declined as the number of adult clan members increased, a result consistent with an encounter-reduction effect whereby adults reduced encounters between juveniles and infective larvae, but were not affected by the number of juveniles in a clan. Infection loads decreased with age, possibly because active immune responses to infection improved with age. Differences in parasite load between clans possibly indicate variation in abiotic environmental factors between clan den sites. The survival of juveniles (< 365 days old) to adulthood decreased with Ancylostoma load, increased with age and was modulated by maternal social status. High-ranking individuals with low Ancylostoma loads had a higher survivorship during the first four years of life than high-ranking individuals with high Ancylostoma loads. These findings suggest that high infection loads with energetically costly parasites such as hookworms during early life can have negative fitness consequences.
Habitat features and colony characteristics influencing ant personality and its fitness consequences
<p>Several factors can influence individual and group behavioral variation that can have important fitness consequences. In this study, we tested how two habitat types (semi-natural meadows and meadows invaded by <i>Solidago</i> plants) and factors like colony and worker size and nest density influence behavioral (activity, meanderness, exploration, aggression, nest displacement) variation on different levels of the social organization of <i>Myrmica rubra </i>ants and how these might affect the colony productivity. We assumed that the factors within the two habitat types exert different selective pressure on individual and colony behavioral variation that affects colony productivity. Our results showed individual-/colony-specific expression of both mean and residual behavioral variation of the studied behavioral traits. Although habitat type did not have any direct effect, habitat-dependent factors, like colony size and nest density influenced the individual mean and residual variation of several traits. We also found personality at the individual level and at the colony level. Exploration positively influenced the total- and worker production in both habitats. Worker aggression influenced all the productivity parameters in semi-natural meadows, whereas activity had a positive effect on the worker and total production in invaded meadows. Our results suggest that habitat type, through its environmental characteristics, can affect different behavioral traits both at the individual and colony level and those with a high influence on colony productivity will form the personality of individuals. Our results highlight the need for complex studies on the behavioral variation of social insects to fully understand the effects shaping their behavior and productivity parameters.</p>
Pollen transfer networks reveal alien species as main heterospecific pollen donors with fitness consequences for natives
<ol> <li>The ecological dynamics of co-flowering communities are largely mediated by pollinators. However, current understanding of pollinator-mediated interactions primarily relies on how co-flowering plants influence attraction of shared pollinators, and much less is known about plan-plant interactions that occur via heterospecific pollen (HP) transfer. Invaded communities in particular can be highly affected by the transfer of alien pollen, but the strength, drivers, and fitness consequences of these interactions at a community scale are not well understood.</li> <li>Here we analyze HP transfer networks in nine coastal communities in the Yucatan Mexico that vary in the relative abundance of invasive flowers to evaluate how HP donation and receipt varies between native and alien plants. We further evaluate whether HP donation and receipt are mediated by floral traits (e.g. display, flower size) or pollinator visitation rate. Finally, we evaluated whether post-pollination success (proportion of pollen tubes produced) was affected by alien HP receipt and whether the effect varied between native and alien recipients.</li> <li>HP transfer networks exhibit relatively high connectance (<i>ca</i>. 15%), suggesting high HP transfer within the studied communities. Significant network nestedness further suggests the existence of species that predominantly act as HP donors or recipients in the community. Species-level analyses showed that natives receive 80% more HP compared to alien species, and that alien plants donate 40% more HP than natives. HP receipt and donation were mediated by different floral traits and such effects were independent of plant origin (native or alien). The proportion of alien HP received significantly affected conspecific pollen tube success in natives, but not that of alien species.</li> <li> <i>Synthesis</i>. Our results suggest that HP transfer in invaded communities is widespread, and that native and alien species play different roles within HP transfer networks, which are mediated by a different suite of floral traits. Alien species, in particular, play a central role as HP donors and are more tolerant to HP receipt than natives—a finding that points to two overlooked mechanisms facilitating alien plant invasion and success within native co-flowering communities.</li> </ol>
Fitness consequences of seasonally different life histories? A match-mismatch experiment
To survive and reproduce successfully, animals have to find the optimal time of breeding. Species living in non-tropical environments often adjust their reproduction plastically according to seasonal changes of the environment. Information about the prevailing season can be transmitted in utero, leading to adaptation of the offspring to the prevailing season. After birth, animals acquire additional personal information about the environment which allows them to adjust their reproductive investment. Here, we tested in a full-factorial match-mismatch experiment the influence of reproductive adjustments according to maternal and personal information. We bred wild cavies (Cavia aperea), a precocial rodent, either into increasing (spring) or decreasing (autumn) photoperiod and subsequently, after weaning, transferred female offspring to the matching or mismatching season. We measured growth, specific metabolic rate (sRMR) and reproductive events across six months. Although sRMR was elevated for females primed for good (spring) conditions when transferred to the mismatching autumn condition, we found no maternal effects on reproduction. Females adjusted their reproductive decisions according to the season they personally experienced, thereby implying a potentially high level of plasticity. Females reproducing in spring started reproduction earlier with a lower reproductive effort than females reproducing in autumn but ultimately, the two groups did not differ in survival, growth or reproduction. These data suggest important developmental plasticity, highlight the use of personal information acquired after weaning over early information provided until weaning and point out the potential value of multiple cues such as food abundance and quality and temperature besides photoperiod.
Data from: Fitness consequences of occasional outcrossing in a functionally asexual plant (Oenothera biennis)
Many clonal organisms occasionally outcross, but the long-term consequences of such infrequent events are often unknown. During five years, representing three to five plant generations, we followed 16 experimental field populations of the forb, Oenothera biennis, originally planted with the same 18 original genotypes. Oenothera biennis usually self-fertilizes, which due to its genetic system (Permanent Translocation Heterozygosity), results in seeds that are clones of the maternal plant. However, rare outcrossing produces genetically novel offspring (but without recombination or increased heterozygosity). We sought to understand whether novel genotypes produced through natural outcrossing had greater fecundity or different multigenerational dynamics compared to our original genotypes. We further assessed whether any differences in fitness or abundances through time between original and novel genotypes were exaggerated in the presence versus absence of insect herbivores. Over the course of the experiment, we genotyped >12,500 plants using microsatellite DNA markers to identify and track the frequency of specific genotypes and estimated fecundity on a subset (>3000) of plants. The effective outcrossing rate was 7.3% in the first year and ultimately 50% of the plants were of outcrossed origin by the final year of the experiment. Lifetime fruit production per plant was on average 32% higher across all novel genotypes produced via outcrossing compared to the original genotypes, and this fecundity advantage was significantly enhanced in populations lacking herbivores. Among 43 novel genotypes that were abundant enough to phenotype with replication, plants produced nearly 30% more fruits than the average of their specific two parental genotypes, and marginally more fruits (8%) than their most fecund parent. Mean per capita fecundity of novel genotypes predicted their relative frequencies at the end of the experiment. Novel genotypes increased more dramatically in herbivore-present compared to suppressed populations (45% vs. 27% of all plants), countering the increased competition from dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) that resulted from herbivore suppression. Increased interspecific competition likely also lead to the lower realized fitness of novel versus original genotypes in herbivore-suppressed populations. These results demonstrate that rare outcrossing and the generation of novel genotypes can create high-fecundity progeny, with the biotic environment influencing the dynamical outcome of such advantages.
Data from: Estimating the relative fitness of escaped farmed salmon offspring in the wild and modeling the consequences of invasion for wild populations
Throughout their native range, wild Atlantic salmon populations are threatened by hybridization and introgression with escapees from net-pen salmon aquaculture. Although domestic-wild hybrid offspring have shown reduced fitness in lab and field experiments, consequential impacts on population abundance and genetic integrity remain difficult to predict in the field, in part because the strength of selection against domestic offspring is often unknown and context-dependent. Here we follow a single large escape event of farmed Atlantic salmon in southern Newfoundland and monitor changes in the in-river proportions of hybrids and feral individuals over time using genetically-based hybrid identification. Over a three-year period following the escape, the overall proportion of wild parr increased consistently (total wild proportion of 71.6%, 75.1%, 87.5% each year, respectively), with subsequent declines in feral (genetically pure farmed individuals originating from escaped, farmed adults) and hybrid parr. We quantify the strength of selection against parr of aquaculture ancestry and explore the genetic and demographic consequences for populations in the region. Within-cohort changes in the relative proportions of feral and F1 parr suggest reduced relative survival compared to wild individuals over the first (0.15 and 0.81 for feral and F1, respectively), and second years of life (0.26, 0.83). These relative survivorship estimates were used to inform an individual-based salmon eco-genetic model to project changes in adult abundance and overall allele frequency across three invasion scenarios ranging from short-term to long-term invasion and three relative survival scenarios. Modeling results indicate that total population abundance and time to recovery were greatly affected by relative survivorship and predict significant declines in wild population abundance under continued large escape events and calculated survivorship. Overall this work demonstrates the importance of estimating the strength of selection against domestic offspring in the wild to predict the long-term impact of farmed salmon escape events on wild populations.
Fitness consequences of a non-recombining sex-ratio drive chromosome can explain its prevalence in the wild
<p>Understanding the pleiotropic consequences of gene drive systems on host fitness is essential to predict their spread through a host population. Here we study Sex-ratio (SR) X-chromosome drive in the fly Drosophila recens, where SR causes the death of Y-bearing sperm in male carriers. SR males only sire daughters, which all carry SR, thus giving the chromosome a transmission advantage. The prevalence of the SR chromosome appears stable, suggesting pleiotropic costs. It was previously shown that females homozygous for SR are sterile, and here we test for additional fitness costs of SR. We find that females heterozygous for SR have reduced fecundity and that male SR carriers have reduced fertility in conditions of sperm competition. We then use our fitness estimates to parameterize theoretical models of SR drive and show that the decrease in fecundity and sperm competition performance can account for the observed prevalence of SR in natural populations. In addition, we find that the expected equilibrium frequency of the SR chromosome is particularly sensitive to the degree of multiple mating and performance in sperm competition. Together our data suggest that the mating system of the organism should be carefully considered during the development of gene drive systems.</p>
Data from: Evolution of thermal tolerance and its fitness consequences: parallel and non-parallel responses to urban heat islands across three cities
The question of parallel evolution—what causes it, and how common it is—has long captured the interest of evolutionary biologists. Widespread urban development over the last century has driven rapid evolutionary responses on contemporary timescales, presenting a unique opportunity to test the predictability and parallelism of evolutionary change. Here we examine rapid urban evolution in an acorn-dwelling ant species, focusing on the urban heat island signal and the ant's tolerance of these altered urban temperature regimes. Using a common-garden experimental design with acorn ant colonies collected from urban and rural populations in three cities and reared under five temperature treatments in the laboratory, we assessed plastic and evolutionary shifts in the heat and cold tolerance of F1 offspring worker ants. In two of three cities, we found evolved losses of cold tolerance, and compression of thermal tolerance breadth. Results for heat tolerance were more complex: in one city, we found evidence of simple evolved shifts in heat tolerance in urban populations, though in another, the difference in urban and rural population heat tolerance depended on laboratory rearing temperature, and only became weakly apparent at the warmest rearing temperatures. The shifts in tolerance appeared to be adaptive, as our analysis of the fitness consequences of warming revealed that while urban populations produced more sexual reproductives under warmer laboratory rearing temperatures, rural populations produced fewer. Patterns of natural selection on thermal tolerances supported our findings of fitness tradeoffs and local adaptation across urban and rural acorn ant populations, as selection on thermal tolerance acted in opposite directions between the warmest and coldest rearing temperatures. Our study provides mixed support for parallel evolution of thermal tolerance under urban temperature rise.
Data from: Fitness consequences of outcrossing in a social spider with an inbreeding mating system
Inbreeding mating systems are uncommon because of inbreeding depression. Mating among close relatives can evolve, however, when outcrossing is constrained. Social spiders show obligatory mating among siblings. In combination with a female-biased sex ratio, sib-mating results in small effective populations. In such a system high genetic homozygosity is expected, and drift may cause population divergence. We tested the effect of outcrossing in the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola. Females were mated to sib-males, to a non-nestmate within the population, or to a male from a distant population, and fitness traits of F1s were compared. We found reduced hatching success of broods from between-population crosses, suggesting the presence of population divergence at a large geographical scale that may result in population incompatibility. However, a lack of a difference in offspring performance between inbred and outbred crosses indicates little genetic variation between populations, and could suggest recent colonisation by a common ancestor. This is consistent with population dynamics of frequent colonisations by single sib-mated females of common origin, and extinctions of populations after few generations. While drift or single mutations can lead to population divergence at a relatively short time scale, it is possible that dynamic population processes homogenize these effects at longer time scales.
Opposing fitness consequences of habitat use in a harvested moose population
<p>1. Landscape changes are happening at an unprecedented pace, and together with high levels of wildlife harvesting humans have a large effect on wildlife populations. A thorough knowledge of their combined influence on individual fitness is important in order to understand factors affecting population dynamics. 2. The goal of the study was to assess the individual consistency in the use of risky habitat types, and how habitat use was related to fitness components and life-history strategies. 3. Using data from a closely monitored and harvested population of moose (Alces alces), we examined how individual variation in offspring size, reproduction, and survival was related to the use of open grasslands; a habitat type that offers high-quality forage during summer, but at the cost of being more exposed to hunters in autumn. Use of this habitat type may therefore involve a trade-off between high mortality risk and forage maximization. 4. There was high repeatability in habitat use, which suggest consistent behaviour within individuals. Offspring number and weight was positively related to the mothers' use of open grasslands, whereas the probability of surviving the subsequent harvest season was negatively related to the use of the same habitat type. As a consequence, we found a non-significant relationship between habitat use and lifetime fitness. 5. The study suggest that harvesting, even if intended to be nonselective with regard to phenotypes, may be selective towards animals with specific behaviour and life-history strategies. As a consequence, harvesting can alter the life-history composition of the population and target life-history strategies that would be beneficial for individual fitness and population growth in the absence of hunting.</p>
Data from: Seeing spots: quantifying mother-offspring similarity and assessing fitness consequences of coat pattern traits in a wild population of giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis)
Polymorphic phenotypes of mammalian coat coloration have been important to the study of genetics and evolution, but less is known about the inheritance and fitness consequences of individual variation in complex coat pattern traits such as spots and stripes. Giraffe coat markings are highly complex and variable and it has been hypothesized that variation in coat patterns most likely affects fitness by camouflaging neonates against visually hunting predators. We quantified complex coat pattern traits of wild Masai giraffes using image analysis software, determined the similarity of spot pattern traits between mother and offspring, and assessed whether variation in spot pattern traits was related to fitness as measured by juvenile survival. The methods we described could comprise a framework for objective quantification of complex mammal coat pattern traits based on photographic coat pattern data. We demonstrated that some characteristics of giraffe coat spot shape were likely to be heritable, as measured by mother-offspring regression. We found significant variation in juvenile survival among phenotypic groups of neonates defined by multivariate clustering based on spot trait measurement variables. We also found significant variation in neonatal survival associated with spot size and shape covariates. Larger spots (smaller number of spots) and irregularly shaped spots (smaller aspect ratio) were correlated with increased survival. These findings will inform investigations into developmental and genetic architecture of complex mammal coat patterns and their adaptive value.
Transgenerational plasticity of dispersal-related traits in a ciliate: genotype-dependency and fitness consequences
<p>The data presented here are those used in the paper : CAYUELA H., JACOB S., SCHTICKZELLE N., VERDONCK R., PHILIPPE H., LAPORTE M., HUET M., BERNATCHEZ L., LEGRAND D. Transgenerational plasticity of dispersal-related traits in a ciliate: genotype-dependency and fitness consequences. Oikos. DOI: 10.1111/oik.08846</p> <p>Phenotypic plasticity, the ability of one genotype to produce different phenotypes in different environments, plays a central role in species' response to environmental changes. Transgenerational plasticity (TGP) allows the transmission of this environmentally-induced phenotypic variation across generations, and can influence adaptation. To date, the genetic control of TGP, its long-term stability, and its potential costs remain largely unknown, mostly because empirical demonstrations of TGP across many generations in several genetic backgrounds are scarce. In the paper of Cayuela et al., we examined how genotype determines the TGP of phenotypic traits related to dispersal, a fundamental process in ecology and evolution. We used an experimental approach in <i>Tetrahymena thermophila</i>, a ciliate model-species, to determine if and how phenotypic changes expressed following a dispersal treatment are inherited over multiple generations. The data include morphological and movement traits, dispersal rates, and cell growth data measured before and after dispersal trials. We considered different genotypes and different populations within each genotype.</p>
Drought has negative consequences on aphid fitness and plant vigour: insights from a meta-analysis
<p>1. Aphids are abundant in natural and managed vegetation, supporting a diverse community of organisms and causing damage to agricultural crops. Due to a changing climate, periods of drought are anticipated to increase, and the potential consequences of this for aphid-plant interactions are unclear.</p> <p>2. Using a meta-analysis and synthesis approach, we aimed to advance understanding of how increased drought incidence will affect this ecologically and economically important insect group, and to characterise any potential underlying mechanisms. We used qualitative and quantitative synthesis techniques to determine whether drought stress has a negative, positive, or null effect on aphid fitness and examined these effects in relation to 1) aphid biology, 2) geographical region, 3) host plant biology.</p> <p>3. Across all studies, aphid fitness is typically reduced under drought. Subgroup analysis detected no difference in relation to aphid biology, geographical region, or the aphid-plant combination, indicating the negative effect of drought on aphids is potentially universal. Furthermore, drought stress had a negative impact on plant vigour and increased plant concentrations of defensive chemicals, suggesting the observed response of aphids is associated with reduced plant vigour and increased chemical defence in drought-stressed plants.</p> <p>4. We propose a conceptual model to predict drought effects on aphid fitness in relation to plant vigour and defence to stimulate further research.</p>
Fitness consequences of hybridization in a predominantly selfing species: insights into the role of dominance and epistatic incompatibilities
<p>Studying the consequences of hybridization on plant performance is insightful to understand the adaptive potential of populations, notably at local scales. Due to reduced effective recombination, predominantly selfing species are organized in highly homozygous multi-locus-genotypes (or lines) that accumulate genetic differentiation both among- and within-populations. This high level of homozygosity facilitates the dissection of the genetic basis of hybrid performance in highly selfing species, which gives insights into the mechanisms of reproductive isolation between lines. Here, we explored the fitness consequences of hybridization events between natural inbred lines of the predominantly selfing species Medicago truncatula, at both within- and among-populations scales. We found that hybridization has opposite effects pending on studied fitness proxies, with dry mass showing heterosis, and seed production showing outbreeding depression. Although we found significant patterns of heterosis and outbreeding depression, they did not differ significantly for within- compared to among-population crosses. Family-based analyses allowed us to determine that hybrid differentiation was mostly due to dominance and epistasis. Dominance and/or dominant epistatic interactions increased dry mass, while decreasing seed production, and recessive epistatic interactions mostly had a positive effect on both fitness proxies. Our results illustrate how genetic incompatibilities can accumulate at a very local scale among multi-locus-genotypes, and how non-additive genetic effects contributes to heterosis and outbreeding depression.</p>
Behavioural, demographic and fitness consequences of social instability in cooperatively breeding dwarf mongoose groups
<p><span>Social instability frequently arises in group-living species, but the potential costs</span> <span>have rarely been investigated in free-living cooperative breeders, especially across different timeframes.</span><span> Using natural observations, body-mass measurements and life-history data from dwarf mongooses (<em>Helogale</em> <em>parvula</em>), we determined the short- and longer-term consequences of a change in one of the dominant breeding pair. We found that a new breeder led to alterations in both collective and individual behaviour (i.e., increases in communal scent-marking, engagement in intergroup interactions, sentinel activity and within-group grooming), as well as reduced body-mass gain, further demographic changes and decreased reproductive success (i.e., fewer pups surviving to adulthood). The effects were particularly apparent when it was the female breeder who changed; new female breeders were younger than more experienced counterparts. Our findings support the idea that stability and cooperation are strongly linked and provide potential reasons for previously documented health and fitness benefits of social stability.</span></p>
Data from: Assessing early fitness consequences of exotic gene flow in the wild: a field study with Iberian pine relicts
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