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89 results for “offspring size”
Egg size and offspring phenotype data at early life stages in seven Arctic charr morphs
<p>Maternal effects have the potential to alter early developmental processes of offspring and contribute to adaptive diversification. Egg size is a major contributor to offspring phenotype, which can influence developmental trajectories and potential resource use. However, to what extent intraspecific variation in egg size facilitates evolution of resource polymorphism is poorly understood. We studied multiple resource morphs of Icelandic Arctic charr, ranging from an anadromous morph – with a phenotype similar to the proposed ancestral phenotype – to sympatric morphs that vary in their degree of phenotypic divergence from the ancestral anadromous morph. We characterised variation in egg size and tested whether egg size influenced offspring phenotype at early-life stages (i.e. timing of- and size at- hatching and first feeding [FF]). We predicted that egg size would differ among morphs and be less variable as morphs diverge away from the ancestral anadromous phenotype. We also predicted that egg size would correlate with offspring size and developmental timing. We found morphs had different egg size, developmental timing and size at hatching and FF. Egg size increased as phenotypic proximity to the ancestral anadromous phenotype decreased, with larger eggs generally giving rise to larger offspring, especially at FF, but egg size had no effect on developmental rate. The interaction between egg size and the environment may have a profound impact on offspring fitness, where the resulting differences in early-life history traits may act to initiate and/or maintain resource morphs diversification. </p>
Data for: Faster growth and larger size at crèche onset are associated with higher offspring survival in Adélie Penguins
<p>We conducted the first assessment of Adélie Penguin chick survival that accounts for imperfect resighting. We found that when chicks are larger in size when they enter the crèche stage (the period when both parents forage at the same time and chicks are left relatively unprotected), they have a higher probability of survival to fledging. We investigated the relationships between growth, crèche-timing, and chick survival during one typical year and one year of reduced food availability. Chicks that hatched earlier in the season entered the crèche stage older, and chicks that both grew faster and crèched older entered the crèche at a larger size. These relationships were stronger in the year of reduced food availability. Thus, parents increased their chicks' chance of fledging if they provided sufficient food for faster growth rates and/or extended the length of the brood-guarding period. Early nest initiation (i.e., early hatching) provided parents with the opportunity to extend the guard period and increase chick survival. However, to extend the guard stage successfully, they must provide larger meals and maintain higher chick growth rates, even if just one parent at a time is foraging, which previous work has shown is not possible for all individuals. We show that the factors governing trade-offs in chick-rearing behavior of Adélie Penguin parents may vary in accord with environmental conditions, a result from which we can better understand species' adaptations to environmental changes.</p>
Selection on offspring size and contemporary evolution under ocean acidification
<p>Ocean acidification may have deleterious effects on many species, but anticipating long-term changes in the abundance of populations will require an understanding of ocean acidification as an evolutionary force. Here I show that ocean acidification alters natural selection on offspring size and is likely to drive contemporary evolution. In a detailed study of a coastal fish species (California Grunion), I demonstrate that larval mortality is highly sensitive to ocean acidification and that mortality rates are lower for larger larvae. However, these effects are countered by tradeoffs between offspring size and number, suggesting that measurements of <a>maternal </a>fitness are critical for quantifying selection through ocean acidification. Measurements of selection and genetic variation were used to project the evolution of larval size as seawater conditions changed incrementally over many decades. Results for California Grunion suggest that contemporary evolution may offset the projected decline in reproductive success by about 50%.</p>
Selection on offspring size and contemporary evolution under ocean acidification
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Data for: Faster growth and larger size at crèche onset are associated with higher offspring survival in Adélie Penguins
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Egg size and offspring phenotype data at early life stages in seven Arctic charr morphs
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Data from: Adaptive maternal investment in the wild? Links between maternal growth trajectory and offspring size, growth, and survival in contrasting environments
Life history theory predicts that investment per offspring should correlate negatively with the quality of environment offspring are anticipated to encounter; parents may use their own experience as juveniles to predict this environment and may modulate offspring traits such as growth capacity as well as initial size. We manipulated nutrient levels in the juvenile habitat of wild Atlantic salmon Salmo salar to investigate the hypothesis that the egg size maximizing juvenile growth and survival depends on environmental quality. We also tested whether offspring traits were related to parental growth trajectory. Mothers that grew fast when young produced more, smaller offspring than mothers that had grown slowly to reach the same size. Despite their size disadvantage, offspring of faster-growing mothers grew faster than those of slow-growing mothers in all environments, counter to the expectation that they would be competitively disadvantaged. However, they had lower relative survival in environments where the density of older predatory/competitor fish was relatively high. These links between maternal (but not paternal) growth trajectory and offspring survival rate were independent of egg size, underscoring that mothers may be adjusting egg traits other than size to suit the anticipated environment faced by their offspring.
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: Female investment in offspring size and number shifts seasonally in a lizard with single-egg clutches
The timing of reproduction strongly influences reproductive success in many organisms. For species with extended reproductive seasons, the quality of the environment may change throughout the season in ways that impact offspring survival, and, accordingly, aspects of reproductive strategies may shift to maximize fitness. Life-history theory predicts that if offspring environments deteriorate through the season, females should shift from producing more, smaller offspring early in the season to fewer, higher quality offspring later in the season. We leverage multiple iterations of anole breeding colonies, which control for temperature, moisture, and food availability, to identify seasonal changes in reproduction. These breeding colonies varied only by the capture date of the adult animals from the field. We show that seasonal cohorts exhibit variation in key reproductive traits such as inter-clutch interval, egg size and hatchling size consistent with seasonal shifts in reproductive effort. Overall, reproductive effort was highest early in the season due to a relatively high rate of egg production. Later season cohorts produced fewer, but larger offspring We infer that these results indicate a strategy for differential allocation of resources through the season. Females maximize offspring quantity when environments are favorable, and maximize offspring quality when environments are poor for those offspring. Our study also highlights that subtle differences in methodology (such as capture date of study animals) may influence the interpretation of results. Researchers interested in reproduction must be conscious of how their organism's reproductive patterns may shift through the season when designing experiments or comparing results across studies.
Data from: indirect costs of reproduction and the tradeoff between offspring size and number: a framework illustrated by fitness costs and benefits of ovarian fluid
<p>Theory describing evolution of offspring size often assumes that the production cost per unit volume is the same for small and large offspring. However, this may not be true if indirect costs of reproduction (e.g., material and energetic costs of supporting offspring development) scale disproportionately with offspring size. Here we show how direct and indirect costs of reproduction can be explicitly modeled within the Smith-Fretwell framework and how observations of size-number relationships can thus be used to evaluate indirect costs. We applied this analysis to measures of egg volume and fecundity for over 300 individuals of a coastal fish species and found that the tradeoff was much stronger than the expected inverse (fecundity scaled with volume<sup>-1.843</sup>). Larger offspring were thus more expensive to produce. For our study species, an important indirect cost was that larger eggs were accompanied by disproportionately more ovarian fluid. Calorimetry and removal experiments were used to further measure both the energetic costs and fitness benefits of ovarian fluid. In addition, we show that indirect costs of reproduction can intensify size-number tradeoffs in a variety of fishes. Indirect costs of reproduction can be large and may therefore play an important role in the evolution of offspring size.</p>
Ecological and behavioural drivers of offspring size in marine teleost fishes
<p>Aim:<strong> </strong>Our aim was to evaluate the role of ecological and life-history factors in shaping global variation in offspring size in a marine clade with a diverse range of parental care behaviours.</p> <p>Location:<strong> </strong>Global.</p> <p>Time period: Data sourced from literature published from 1953 until 2019.</p> <p>Major taxa studied:<strong> </strong>Marine teleost fishes.</p> <p>Methods:<strong> </strong>We compiled a species-level dataset of egg and hatchling size for 1,639 species of marine fish across 45 orders. We used Bayesian phylogenetic mixed models to evaluate the relationship between offspring size and environmental factors (i.e., mean temperature, chlorophyll-<i>a</i> and dissolved oxygen content together with their annual variation), as well as latitude, reproductive strategy, parental body size and fecundity. We also tested long-standing hypotheses about the co-evolution of offspring size and the presence of parental care in BayesTraits.</p> <p>Results: After controlling for parental body size and phylogenetic history, we find that increased egg size is associated with colder and oxygen-rich waters, while hatch size further depends on food supply and the reproductive strategy exhibited by the species. Irrespective of the initial investment in egg size, species with parental care or demersal egg development yield larger hatchlings compared to pelagic spawners. We also demonstrate that hatch size has co-evolved with advanced forms of care in association with parental body but fail to find a relationship with other types of care.</p> <p>Main conclusions: Our study shows that parental care behaviours, together with environmental context, influence the evolution of classic life-history trade-offs on a global scale. While the initial investment in eggs is driven primarily by temperature and oxygen content, hatchling size also reflects the impact of care an offspring has received throughout development. In support of the 'offspring-first' hypothesis, we find that an increase in hatch size drives the evolution of advanced care provision. </p>
Data from: Brood size, food availability, and body size affects male care decisions and offspring performance
<p>Parental care strategies do not only vary greatly across species, but also within species, there can be substantial between- and within-individual variation in parental care behaviour. To better understand the evolution of care strategies, it is crucial to determine how and when parents modify their behaviour in response to internal as well as environmental factors. Here, we investigated the effect of brood size, resource size and an individual's quality on care strategies of uniparental males and examined the downstream consequences on offspring performance in the burying beetle <em>Nicrophorus vespilloides</em>. Burying beetles breed on small vertebrate cadavers and, on average, males invest much less in care than females. Nevertheless, we found that uniparentally caring males were responsive to their social and non-social environment and adjusted the amount as well as the type of care to the size of the brood, the size of the cadaver and their own body size. Additionally, we show that the care strategies affected offspring performance. Specifically, males that cared longer had larger and more surviving larvae. Our results add to our understanding of plastic parenting strategies by showing that even the sex that provides less care can evolve a very flexible care behaviour.</p>
Data from: Female investment in offspring size and number shifts seasonally in a lizard with single-egg clutches
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Data from: Why does offspring size affect performance? Integrating metabolic scaling with life-history theory
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Differences in perceived predation risk associated with variation in relative size of extra-pair and within-pair offspring
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Data from: Experimental manipulation of polyandry in a marine gastropod reveals how the number of mates affects reproductive output, offspring size, and the distribution of paternity within broods
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Data from: Experimental manipulation of brood size affects several levels of phenotypic variance in offspring and parent pied flycatchers
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Flash drought and heat waves influence embryonic development and offspring size in an oviparous ectotherm
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Data from: Linking life-history theory and metabolic theory explains the offspring size-temperature relationship
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Data from: Brood size, food availability, and body size affects male care decisions and offspring performance
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