Life-stage specific environments in a cichlid fish: Implications for inducible maternal effects

Kotrschal, A., Heckel, G., Bonfils, D., & Taborsky, B. (2012). Life-stage specific environments in a cichlid fish: Implications for inducible maternal effects. Evolutionary Ecology 26 (1) 123-137. 10.1007/s10682-011-9495-5.

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Abstract

Through environmentally induced maternal effects females may fine-tune their offspring's phenotype to the conditions offspring will encounter after birth. If juvenile and adult ecologies differ, the conditions mothers experienced as juveniles may better predict their offspring's environment than the adult females' conditions. Maternal effects induced by the environment experienced by females during their early ontogeny should evolve when three ecological conditions are met: (1) Adult ecology does not predict the postnatal environmental conditions of offspring; (2) Environmental conditions for juveniles are correlated across successive generations; and (3) Juveniles occasionally settle in conditions that differ from the juvenile habitat of their mothers. By combining size-structured population counts, ecological surveys and a genetic analysis of population structure we provide evidence that all three conditions hold for Simochromis pleurospilus, a cichlid fish in which mothers adjust offspring quality to their own juvenile ecology. In particular we show (1) that the spatial niches and the habitat quality differ between juveniles and adults, and we provide genetic evidence (2) that usually fish of successive generations grow up in similar habitats, and (3) that occasional dispersal in populations with a different habitat quality is likely to occur. As adults of many species cannot predict their offspring's environment from ambient cues, life-stage specific maternal effects.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Maternal effect; Life-stage specific; Juvenile and adult environment; Cichlid fish
Research Programs:	Evolution and Ecology (EEP)
Bibliographic Reference:	Evolutionary Ecology; 26(1):123-137 (January 2012) (Published online 29 May 2011)
Depositing User:	IIASA Import
Date Deposited:	15 Jan 2016 08:46
Last Modified:	27 Aug 2021 17:22
URI:	https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/10037

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