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544 results for “life-history”
Data and code from: Seasonal timing of ecosystem linkage mediates life-history variation in a salmonid fish population
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Slower environmental cycles maintain greater life-history variation within populations
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Disentangling the causes of age-assortative mating in bird populations with contrasting life-history strategies
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Data from: Meroplankton diversity, seasonality and life-history traits across the Barents Sea Polar Front revealed by high-throughput DNA barcoding
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Data for Predation and resource availability interact to drive life-history evolution in an adaptive radiation of livebearing fish
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Grow fast but don’t die young: maternal effects mediate life-history tradeoffs of lizards under climate warming
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Data from: Weedy and seedy: The rapid evolution of life-history characteristics in an introduced daisy
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Linking spatial variations in life-history traits to environmental conditions across American black bear populations
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Data from: Live fast, die old: oxidative stress as a potential mediator of an unexpected life-history evolution
Intraspecific latitudinal patterns in life history are well documented, yet underlying mechanisms of such patterns are poorly understood. To advance our insights in the evolution of latitudinal differences in two key traits, growth rate and lifespan, we evaluated the potential costs of rapid growth in terms of reduced adult lifespan, and the mediatory role of oxidative stress. We studied latitudinal differentiation in routine and experimentally increased (compensatory) larval growth rates, and in adult lifespan under common garden conditions in low- and high-latitude populations of the damselfly <i>Ischnura elegans</i>. The low-latitude populations showed not only higher routine growth rates but also a stronger compensatory growth response after a transient food shortage compared to the high-latitude populations. In contrast with a trade-off scenario, adults of the faster growing low-latitude populations lived longer, had higher levels of antioxidant enzymes, and tended to experience lower oxidative damage. Importantly, these latitudinal patterns were largely mirrored at the treatment level, where experimentally induced compensatory growth rates were associated with neither oxidative damage nor shorter adult lifespans. Moreover, individuals with a higher growth rate after the transient food shortage did not have shorter adult lifespans or higher oxidative damage, but instead showed a stronger antioxidant defense. Our data indicate that an overcompensatory, hormetic response in antioxidant defense, potentially induced by the higher routine growth rates, resulting in less oxidative damage may underlie these unexpected growth-lifespan patterns. Our results highlight the added value of incorporating oxidative stress physiology, and the need to consider multivariate trade-offs in which animals optimize multiple traits, when studying life-history evolution.
Personality driven life-history trade-offs differ in two sub-populations of free ranging predators
<p>1) Consistent individual differences in behaviour (i.e. personality) can be explained in an evolutionary context if they are favoured by life-history trade-offs as conceptualized in the pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis. Theory predicts that faster growing individuals suffer higher mortality and that this trade-off is mediated through exploration/risk-taking personality, but empirical support for this remains limited and ambiguous. Equivocal support to the POLS hypothesis suggests that the link between life-history and personality may only emerge under certain circumstances. Understanding personality driven trade-offs would be facilitated by long-term studies in wild populations experiencing different ecological conditions.</p> <p>2) Here, we tested whether personality measured in semi-captivity was associated with a growth-mortality trade-off via risk-taking in the wild in two sub-populations of juvenile lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) known to differ in their predator abundance. We expected stronger personality driven trade-offs in the predator-rich environment as compared to the predator-poor environment.</p> <p>3) Sharks were captured yearly from 1995 onwards allowing us to obtain long-term data on growth and apparent survival in each sub-population. We then used a novel open-field assay to test sharks for exploration personality yearly from 2012 to 2017. A subset of the tested sharks was monitored in the field using telemetry to document risk-taking behaviours. We tested (i) if fast explorers in captivity took more risks and grew faster in the wild and (ii) if natural selection acted against more explorative, faster growing sharks.</p> <p>4) In the sub-population with fewer predators, more explorative sharks in captivity took more risks in the wild and grew faster. In turn, larger, fast-growing sharks had lower apparent survival. In the predator-rich sub-population, despite finding selection on fast growth, we found no link between exploration personality and the growth-mortality trade-off.</p> <p>5) Our study demonstrates that the association between personality and life-history is favoured in some ecological contexts but not in others. We identify predator and resource abundance as two main potential drivers of the personality mediated trade-off and emphasize that future work on the POLS hypothesis would benefit from an approach integrating behaviour and life-history across ecological conditions.</p>
Data from: Life-history theory provides a framework for detecting resource limitation: a test of the Nutritional Buffer Hypothesis
<p>For ungulates and other long-lived species, life-history theory predicts that nutritional reserves are allocated to reproduction in a state-dependent manner because survival is highly conserved. Further, as per-capita food abundance and nutritional reserves decline (i.e., density-dependence intensifies), reproduction and recruitment become increasingly sensitive to weather. Thus, the degree to which weather influences vital rates should be associated with proximity to nutritional carrying capacity—a notion that we refer to as the Nutritional Buffer Hypothesis. We tested the Nutritional Buffer Hypothesis using six moose (<i>Alces alces</i>) populations that varied in calf recruitment (33-69 calves/ 100 cows). We predicted that populations with high calf recruitment were nutritionally buffered against the effects of unfavorable weather, and thus were below nutritional carrying capacity. We applied a suite of tools to quantify habitat and nutritional condition of each population and found that increased browse condition, forage quality, and body fat were associated with increased pregnancy and calf recruitment, thereby providing multiple lines of evidence that declines in calf recruitment were underpinned by resource limitation. From 2001 to 2015, recruitment was more sensitive to interannual variation in weather (e.g., winter severity, drought) and plant phenology (e.g., duration of spring) for populations with reduced browse condition, forage quality, and body fat, suggesting these populations lacked the nutritional reserves necessary to buffer demographic performance against the effects of unfavorable weather. Further, average within-population calf recruitment was determined by regional climatic variation, suggesting that the pattern of reduced recruitment near the southern range boundary of moose stems from an interaction between climate and resource limitation. When coupled with information on habitat, nutrition, weather, and climate, life-history theory provides a framework to estimate nutritional limitation, proximity to nutritional carrying capacity, and impacts of climate change for ungulates.</p>
Data from: Life-history differences across latitude in common side blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana)
Life‐history strategies are known to shift with latitude in many species. While life‐history variation related to body size, reproductive investment, and behavior has been studied for years, another crucial life‐history component is the immune system, which can influence an animal's survival. We measured selected life‐history traits in side‐blotched lizards in southern Utah and Oregon in the field for two consecutive years and conducted a common‐garden experiment in the laboratory to determine how organisms from different latitudes optimize either immunity or reproduction. We observed lizards from southern populations, which are known to be shorter‐lived, had lower immune function during reproduction when compared to northern lizards in 2012, but the relationship reversed in the following year. Our laboratory study revealed that southern lizards healed cutaneous wounds faster and had higher microbiocidal ability when compared to their northern counterparts, but lost mass doing so. The northern lizards ate more than the southern ones and maintained their body mass. It is possible that northern lizards are better adapted to taking advantage of available food resources. Alternatively, southern lizards may have exhibited sickness behavior in response to an immune challenge or reacted more strongly to the stress of captivity. We found differences in life‐history strategies used by animals from different latitudes, and that these changes can shift within a population depending on the weather conditions of the year. Furthermore, when taken from the field and placed into a common‐garden environment, some of these differences in strategy appear to be intrinsic to the animals (i.e., whether they came from southern or northern populations).
Data from: Why does offspring size affect performance? Integrating metabolic scaling with life-history theory
Within species, larger offspring typically outperform smaller offspring. While the relationship between offspring size and performance is ubiquitous, the cause of this relationship remains elusive. By linking metabolic and life-history theory, we provide a general explanation for why larger offspring perform better than smaller offspring. Using high-throughput respirometry arrays, we link metabolic rate to offspring size in two species of marine bryozoan. We found that metabolism scales allometrically with offspring size in both species: while larger offspring utilise absolutely more energy than smaller offspring, larger offspring use proportionally less of their maternally-derived energy throughout the dependent, non-feeding phase. The increased metabolic efficiency of larger offspring while dependent on maternal investment may explain offspring size effects –larger offspring reach nutritional independence (feed for themselves) with a higher proportion of energy relative to structure than smaller offspring. These findings offer a potentially universal explanation for why larger offspring tend to perform better than smaller offspring but studies on other taxa are needed.
Data from: Interacting effects of unobserved heterogeneity and individual stochasticity in the life-history of the Southern fulmar
1.Individuals are heterogeneous in many ways. Some of these differences are incorporated as individual states (e.g., age, size, breeding status) in population models. However, substantial amounts of heterogeneity may remain unaccounted for, due to unmeasurable genetic, maternal, or environmental factors. 2.Such unobserved heterogeneity (UH) affects the behavior of heterogeneous cohorts via intra-cohort selection and contributes to inter-individual variance in demographic outcomes such as longevity and lifetime reproduction. Variance is also produced by individual stochasticity, due to random events in the life cycle of wild organisms, yet no study thus far has attempted to decompose the variance in demographic outcomes into contributions from unobserved heterogeneity and individual stochasticity for an animal population in the wild. 3.We developed a stage-classified matrix population model for the Southern fulmar breeding on Ile des Pétrels, Antarctica. We applied multi-event, multi-state markrecapture methods to estimate a finite mixture model accounting for UH in all vital rates and Markov chain methods to calculate demographic outcomes. Finally, we partitioned the variance in demographic outcomes into contributions from unobserved heterogeneity and individual stochasticity. 4.We identify three UH groups, differing substantially in longevity, lifetime reproductive output, age at first reproduction, and in the proportion of the life spent in each reproductive state. 14% of individuals at fledging have a delayed but high probability of recruitment and extended reproductive lifespan. 67% of individuals are less likely to reach adulthood, recruit late and skip breeding often but have the highest adult survival rate. 19% of individuals recruit early and attempt to breed often. They are likely to raise their offspring successfully, but experience a relatively short lifespan. Unobserved heterogeneity only explains a small fraction of the variances in longevity (5.9%), age at first reproduction (3.7%) and lifetime reproduction (22%). 5.UH can affect the entire life cycle, including survival, development, and reproductive rates, with consequences over the lifetime of individuals and impacts on cohort dynamics. The respective role of unobserved heterogeneity versus individual stochasticity varies greatly among demographic outcomes. We discuss the implication of our finding for the gradient of life-history strategies observed among species and argue that individual differences should always be accounted for in demographic studies of wild populations.
Data from: A life-history perspective on sexual selection in a polygamous species
<p>Background: Ever since Darwin, evolutionary biologists have studied sexual selection driving differences in appearance and behaviour between males and females. An unchallenged paradigm in such studies is that one sex (usually the male) signals its quality as a mate to the other sex (usually the female), who is choosy in accepting a partner. Here, we hypothesize that in polygamous species these roles change dynamically with the mating status of males and females, depending on direct reproductive costs and benefits of multiple matings, and on sperm competition. We test this hypothesis by assessing fitness costs and benefits of multiple matings in both males and females in a polygamous moth species, as in moths not males but females are the signalers and males are the responders.</p> <p>Results: We found that multiple matings confer fitness costs and benefits for both sexes. Specifically, the number of matings did not affect the longevity of males or females, but only 67 % of the males and 14 % of the females mated successfully in all five nights. In addition, the female's reproductive output increased with multiple matings, although when paired with a new virgin male every night, more than 3 matings decreased her reproductive output, so that the Bateman gradient for females fit a quadratic model better than a linear model. The male's reproductive success was positively affected by the number of matings and a linear regression line best fit the data. Simulations of the effect of sperm competition showed that increasing last-male paternity increases the steepness of the male Bateman gradient and thus the male's<br> relative fitness gain from additional mating. Irrespective of last-male paternity value, the female Bateman gradient is steeper than the male one for up to three matings.</p> <p>Conclusion: Our results suggest that choosiness in moths may well change throughout the mating season, with males being more choosy early in the season and females being more choosy after having mated at least three times. This life-history perspective on the costs and benefits of multiple matings for both sexes sheds new light on sexual selection forces acting on sexual signals and responses.</p>
Data from: A clinal polymorphism in the insulin signaling transcription factor foxo contributes to life-history adaptation in Drosophila
A fundamental aim of adaptation genomics is to identify polymorphisms that underpin variation in fitness traits. In D. melanogaster latitudinal life-history clines exist on multiple continents and make an excellent system for dissecting the genetics of adaptation. We have previously identified numerous clinal SNPs in insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling (IIS), a pathway known from mutant studies to affect life history. However, the effects of natural variants in this pathway remain poorly understood. Here we investigate how two clinal alternative alleles at foxo, a transcriptional effector of IIS, affect fitness components (viability, size, starvation resistance, fat content). We assessed this polymorphism from the North American cline by reconstituting outbred populations, fixed for either the low- or high-latitude allele, from inbred DGRP lines. Since diet and temperature modulate IIS, we phenotyped alleles across two temperatures (18°C, 25°C) and two diets differing in sugar source and content. Consistent with clinal expectations, the high-latitude allele conferred larger body size and reduced wing loading. Alleles also differed in starvation resistance and expression of InR, a transcriptional target of FOXO. Allelic reaction norms were mostly parallel, with few GxE interactions. Together, our results suggest that variation in IIS makes a major contribution to clinal life-history adaptation.
Strong species differences in life-history do not predict oxidative stress physiology or sensitivity to an environmental oxidant
1. Species typically align along a fast-slow life-history continuum, yet it is not clear to what extent oxidative stress physiology can be integrated with this continuum to form a 'pace-of-life syndrome', especially so in invertebrates. This is important, given the assumed role of oxidative stress in mediating life-history trade-offs, and the prediction that species with a faster pace should be more vulnerable to oxidative stress. 2. We tested whether a species' life-history pace, here represented by its growth rate, can predict species-level differentiation in physiology and sensitivity to oxidative stress. Therefore, we exposed four species of Ischnura damselflies that strongly align along a fast-slow life-history continuum to different levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. We measured an extended set of physiological traits linked to the pace-of-life: standard metabolic rate (SMR), oxidative stress physiology (antioxidant enzymes and oxidative damage), and defence/condition traits (investment in immune function, energy storage, and structural defence). 3. Despite strong species differences in growth rate and physiology, growth rate did not predict species-level differentiation in physiology. Hence there was no support for the integration of metabolic rate, oxidative stress physiology or defence/condition traits into a species-level syndrome. 4. UV exposure affected nearly all traits: it reduced growth rate and increased metabolic rate, affected all oxidative stress physiology traits and increased the two defence traits (immune function, and melanin content). Nevertheless, the pace-of-life based on growth rate did not predict sensitivity to UV. Instead, the observed pattern of investment in structural UV defence (melanin) might have reduced the need for enzymatic antioxidant defence, this way potentially decoupling the covariation between the life-history pace and oxidative stress physiology. 5. The absence of an integrated axis of life-history and physiological variation indicates no major constraints for the evolution of these traits among the studied damselfly species. Our study highlights that ecological differences between species may decouple covariation between species' life-history pace and their physiology, as well as their sensitivity to environmental stressors. 30-Mar-2020
The morphological and life-history data of two Daphnia species under different fish kairomone concentrations
<p><em>Daphnia</em> species can avoid predation by sensing fish kairomones and producing inducible defenses by altering the phenotype. However, the inducible response mechanisms of different <em>Daphnia</em> species to fish kairomones remain unclear. In this study, the morphological and life history strategy of two <em>Daphnia</em> species (<em>Daphnia pulex</em> and <em>Daphnia sinensis</em>) exposed to <em>Aristichthys nobilis</em> kairomones were studied. In the presence of fish kairomones, the two <em>Daphnia</em> species exhibited significantly smaller body length at maturity, smaller body length of offspring at the 10<sup>th</sup> instar, and longer relative tail spine of offspring. Nevertheless, other morphological and life history traits of the two <em>Daphnia</em> species differed. <em>D. pulex</em> showed a significantly longer relative tail spine length and shorter age at maturity after exposure to fish kairomones. The total offspring number of <em>D. sinensis </em>exposed to fish kairomones was significantly higher than that of the control group, whereas that of <em>D. pulex</em> was significantly lower. These results suggest that the inducible mechanisms (e.g., relative tail spine length, age at maturity, and total offspring number) of the two <em>Daphnia </em>species exposed to fish kairomones differ significantly and that the maternal morphological traits can be transferred to the offspring such that they can avoid predation.</p>
Diet-induced plasticity of life-history traits and gene expression in outbred Drosophila melanogaster population
<p>Food is fundamental for the survival of organisms, governing growth, maintenance, and reproduction through the provision of essential macronutrients. However, access to food with optimum macronutrient composition, which will maximize the evolutionary fitness of an organism, is not always guaranteed. This leads to dietary mismatches with potential impacts on organismal performance. To understand the consequences of such dietary mismatches, we examined the effects of isocaloric diets varying in macronutrient composition on eight key organismal traits spanning across the lifespan of a large outbred <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em> population (n ~ 2500). Our findings reveal that carbohydrate-reduced isocaloric diets correlates to accelerated pre-adult development and boosts reproductive output without impacting pre-adult viability and body size. Conversely, an elevated dietary carbohydrate content correlated to reduced lifespan in flies, evidenced by accelerated functional senescence including compromised locomotor activity and deteriorating gut integrity. Furthermore, transcriptomic analysis indicated a substantial difference in gene regulatory landscapes between flies subject to high carbohydrate vs high protein diet, with elevated protein levels indicating transcriptomes primed for reduced synthesis of fatty acids. Taken together, our study helps advance our understanding of the effect of macronutrient composition on life history traits and their interrelations, offering critical insights into potential adaptive strategies that organisms might adopt against the continual dietary imbalances prevalent in the rapidly evolving environment.</p>
Unconventional life-history in a migratory shorebird: desegregating reproduction and migration
<p>Please view README.md file in R before using dataset for the paper entitled: Unconventional life-history in a migratory shorebird: desgregeating reproduction and migration published in Proceedings B of the Royal Society (2024)</p>
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