Reproductive-timing-dependent alternation of offspring life histories in female threespine sticklebacks

1999 ◽  
Vol 77 (8) ◽  
pp. 1314-1321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshihiko Saito ◽  
Shigeru Nakano
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Reproductive Timing ◽  
Equivalent Age ◽  
Structured Population ◽  
Otolith Increments ◽  
Threespine Sticklebacks ◽  
Young Of The Year ◽  
Age Structured ◽  
Breeding Seasons

Relationships between reproductive timing of spawners and timing of hatch and age at maturity of their offspring were examined in fluvial threespine sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus. Some age 2 and all age 3 females matured in this age-structured population, with only a few females reproducing over two successive breeding seasons. Age 2 females spawned over the relatively long breeding season (March-August), whereas age 3 females spawned mainly early in the season (March-June). Although the standard length of mature age 3 females was greater than that of age 2 females, the back-calculated standard lengths of the former were always shorter than those of the latter at an equivalent age, the most distinct differences being apparent in young of the year. Analysis of daily otolith increments showed that the earlier the young of the year were born, the larger they were at the end of the growing season. As a result of these findings, age 3 females can be expected to produce offspring that will mature at age 2, whereas the offspring of late-spawning age 2 females are more likely to mature at age 3. Therefore, a partial alternation of life histories between generations is thought to occur.

Life-history concepts and the population biology of clonal organisms

1987 ◽  
Vol 232 (1266) ◽  
pp. 35-57 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Clonal Growth ◽  
Population Biology ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Cost Of Reproduction ◽  
Reproductive Value ◽  
Structured Population ◽  
Clonal Organisms ◽  
Age Structured ◽  
Different Levels

Existing life-history concepts deal inadequately with clonal organisms. To make them more generally applicable, several assumptions must be widened: (i) life histories may be expressed at different levels of individual organization. e. g. genets and modules; (ii) parts of a life cycle may be executed more than once by a single genetic individual; (iii) genetic individuals do not necessarily senesce; (iv) size and reproductive value of genetic individuals may increase indefinitely with age; and (v) dor­mancy, dispersal of progeny, and production of genetically different progeny are not necessarily linked to the same process, as they are in reproduction of unitary organisms. A model is presented of a size-structured population of genets, in which each genet comprises an age-structured metapopulation of modules. The model predicts that the extent to which clonal growth evolves depends on: constraints in genet architecture (high or low within-genet ‘disper­sal’); cost of reproduction relative to that of clonal growth; the presence or absence of density-dependent regulation of population size; the pres­ence of lethal events that kill entire genets, as opposed to genet mortality occurring only as a consequence of the mortality of all its modules; the ability of genets to predict such lethal events; and the temporal heterogeneity of the environment. The predicted responses to r - and K -selection differ markedly from those predicted for unitary organisms, especially for genets with high within-genet dispersal. For example, r -selection may favour clonal growth with no reproduction, whereas K -selection favours greater reproduction.

Adaptive, genetically based differences in life history between estuary and freshwater threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.)

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (10) ◽  
pp. 2448-2454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randal J. Snyder ◽  
Hugh Dingle
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Genetic Variance ◽  
The Body ◽  
Life Styles ◽  
First Reproduction ◽  
Freshwater Population ◽  
Threespine Sticklebacks

Life history theory predicts that migratory fishes should delay reproduction, be larger at maturity, and have higher fecundities than nonmigrants. We tested this hypothesis by comparing life histories of laboratory-reared estuary and freshwater threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.) from the Navarro River, California. We also estimated phenotypic correlations and genetic variance (broad-sense heritabilities) for reproductive characteristics of these fish. The more migratory estuary sticklebacks delayed reproduction, were larger at first reproduction, and had higher fecundities than the freshwater fish. We found no significant differences in interclutch interval or average size of eggs. The body size – fecundity relationship did not differ among these populations, unlike the findings in previous reports comparing anadromous and freshwater threespine sticklebacks. We found significant levels of genetic variance for age and size at first reproduction in both populations, and for fecundity in the freshwater population. The estuary and freshwater sticklebacks did not differ in average number of fin rays, gill rakers, or lateral plates, indicating that differentiation in life history has not been accompanied by significant changes in these characteristics. These results provide evidence of genetic divergence between these populations with respect to life histories, and the nature of these differences suggests that adaptation to different migratory life-styles has occurred.

scholarly journals Evolution of heterogeneity under constant and variable environments

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0257377
Author(s):  
Ryo Oizumi ◽  
Hisashi Inaba
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Control ◽  
Population Model ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Structured Population Model ◽  
Variable Environment ◽  
Structured Population ◽  
Variable Environments ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Age Structured ◽  
Hamilton Jacobi Bellman

Various definitions of fitness are essentially based on the number of descendants of an allele or a phenotype after a sufficiently long time. However, these different definitions do not explicate the continuous evolution of life histories. Herein, we focus on the eigenfunction of an age-structured population model as fitness. The function generates an equation, called the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation, that achieves adaptive control of life history in terms of both the presence and absence of the density effect. Further, we introduce a perturbation method that applies the solution of this equation to the long-term logarithmic growth rate of a stochastic structured population model. We adopt this method to realize the adaptive control of heterogeneity for an optimal foraging problem in a variable environment as the analyzable example. The result indicates that the eigenfunction is involved in adaptive strategies under all the environments listed herein. Thus, we aim to systematize adaptive life histories in the presence of density effects and variable environments using the proposed objective function as a universal fitness candidate.

Egg cannibalism and the reproductive strategies of threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in a coastal British Columbia lake

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 2036-2046 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. D. Hyatt ◽  
N. H. Ringler
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Filial Cannibalism ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Egg Cannibalism ◽  
Threespine Sticklebacks ◽  
Reproductive Cycles ◽  
Breeding Seasons ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Coastal British Columbia

Patterns of egg eating and their association with differences in sex, size, abundance, and reproductive status of free-ranging sticklebacks from Kennedy Lake, British Columbia, were examined as a means of identifying the relative importance of filial cannibalism or heterocannibalism as the source of eggs in the diet. Egg cannibalism was a common event: 23.0 and 11.2% of the sticklebacks examined in 1982 and 1985, respectively, had engaged in egg eating. Eggs were a substantial part of the overall diet of the stickleback population during two breeding seasons: 27.4% of the diet of all fish by weight in 1982, 32.8% of the diet by volume in 1985. Our results do not support Rohwer's contention that filial cannibalism is the source of most eggs in stickleback diets. Ten out of 11 predictions based on the filial cannibalism hypothesis were rejected, whereas the 11th was compatible with either the filial cannibalism hypothesis or the alternative heterocannibalism hypothesis. We conclude that heterocannibalism, not filial cannibalism, is the major source of eggs in the diet of Kennedy Lake sticklebacks. We suggest that nest raiding and egg cannibalism may minimize time spent foraging and maximize time spent on activities that increase the probability of initiating and successfully completing one or more reproductive cycles. Although the benefits of nest raiding and cannibalism are most obvious for populations breeding under conditions where food supplies clearly limit their potential reproductive output, the benefits may still apply even under conditions where alternative prey sources appear to be abundant.

scholarly journals Diversity and sexual dimorphism in the head lateral line system in North Sea populations of threespine sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus (Teleostei: Gasterosteidae)

Zoomorphology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Ahnelt ◽  
David Ramler ◽  
Maria Ø. Madsen ◽  
Lasse F. Jensen ◽  
Sonja Windhager
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Lateral Line ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Sensory System ◽  
Threespine Stickleback ◽  
Lateral Line System ◽  
Line System ◽  
Marine Population ◽  
Threespine Sticklebacks

AbstractThe mechanosensory lateral line of fishes is a flow sensing system and supports a number of behaviors, e.g. prey detection, schooling or position holding in water currents. Differences in the neuromast pattern of this sensory system reflect adaptation to divergent ecological constraints. The threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, is known for its ecological plasticity resulting in three major ecotypes, a marine type, a migrating anadromous type and a resident freshwater type. We provide the first comparative study of the pattern of the head lateral line system of North Sea populations representing these three ecotypes including a brackish spawning population. We found no distinct difference in the pattern of the head lateral line system between the three ecotypes but significant differences in neuromast numbers. The anadromous and the brackish populations had distinctly less neuromasts than their freshwater and marine conspecifics. This difference in neuromast number between marine and anadromous threespine stickleback points to differences in swimming behavior. We also found sexual dimorphism in neuromast number with males having more neuromasts than females in the anadromous, brackish and the freshwater populations. But no such dimorphism occurred in the marine population. Our results suggest that the head lateral line of the three ecotypes is under divergent hydrodynamic constraints. Additionally, sexual dimorphism points to divergent niche partitioning of males and females in the anadromous and freshwater but not in the marine populations. Our findings imply careful sampling as an important prerequisite to discern especially between anadromous and marine threespine sticklebacks.

Effects of constant and fluctuating temperatures on egg production in the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (6) ◽  
pp. 1599-1602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vital Boulé ◽  
Gerard J. Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Performance ◽  
Egg Production ◽  
Egg Size ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Reproduction Number ◽  
Temperature Fluctuations ◽  
Spawning Grounds ◽  
Threespine Sticklebacks ◽  
Fluctuating Temperatures

Female threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) spend only 9–15 days on the spawning grounds, an intertidal salt marsh at Isle Verte, Quebec, during a 2-month breeding season. Individuals average only one spawning. However, in the laboratory they lay clutches of several hundred eggs every 3–5 days for several months. We designed laboratory experiments to determine (i) whether daily temperature fluctuations similar to those encountered in the marsh affect reproduction (number of clutches, number of eggs per clutch, and size of eggs) and (ii) whether the amplitude of the fluctuations encountered by the fish affects reproduction. We compared the reproduction of females held in fluctuating temperatures with that of females kept at 20 °C. Fish kept under fluctuating conditions produced more eggs per clutch but had longer interspawning intervals than those at 20 °C. Total seasonal egg production and egg size did not differ between the two groups. Fish in fluctuating temperatures survived longer and were in better condition than those at 20 °C. We conclude that the amplitude of the fluctuations is less important than mean temperature in determining reproductive performance. Fluctuating temperatures on the spawning grounds are not responsible for the short residency there.

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