Dietary-based developmental plasticity affects juvenile survival in an aquatic detritivore
(2021) In Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 288(1945).- Abstract
Developmental plasticity is ubiquitous in natural populations, but the underlying causes and fitness consequences are poorly understood. For consumers, nutritional variation of juvenile diets is probably associated with plasticity in developmental rates, but little is known about how diet quality can affect phenotypic trajectories in ways that might influence survival to maturity and lifetime reproductive output. Here, we tested how the diet quality of a freshwater detritivorous isopod (Asellus aquaticus), in terms of elemental ratios of diet (i.e. carbon: nitrogen: phosphorus; C: N: P), can affect (i) developmental rates of body size and pigmentation and (ii) variation in juvenile survival. We reared 1047 individuals, in a full-sib... (More)
Developmental plasticity is ubiquitous in natural populations, but the underlying causes and fitness consequences are poorly understood. For consumers, nutritional variation of juvenile diets is probably associated with plasticity in developmental rates, but little is known about how diet quality can affect phenotypic trajectories in ways that might influence survival to maturity and lifetime reproductive output. Here, we tested how the diet quality of a freshwater detritivorous isopod (Asellus aquaticus), in terms of elemental ratios of diet (i.e. carbon: nitrogen: phosphorus; C: N: P), can affect (i) developmental rates of body size and pigmentation and (ii) variation in juvenile survival. We reared 1047 individuals, in a full-sib split-family design (29 families), on either a high- (low C: P, C: N) or low-quality (high C: P, C: N) diet, and quantified developmental trajectories of body size and pigmentation for every individual over 12 weeks. Our diet contrast caused strong divergence in the developmental rates of pigmentation but not growth, culminating in a distribution of adult pigmentation spanning the broad range of phenotypes observed both within and among natural populations. Under low-quality diet, we found highest survival at intermediate growth and pigmentation rates. By contrast, survival under high-quality diet survival increased continuously with pigmentation rate, with longest lifespans at intermediate growth rates and high pigmentation rates. Building on previous work which suggests that visual predation mediates the evolution of cryptic pigmentation in A. aquaticus, our study shows how diet quality and composition can generate substantial phenotypic variation by affecting rates of growth and pigmentation during development in the absence of predation.
(Less)
- author
- Lürig, Moritz D. LU and Matthews, Blake
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021-02-24
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- development, diet quality, fitness, life history, phenotypic plasticity, stoichiometry
- in
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- volume
- 288
- issue
- 1945
- article number
- 20203136
- pages
- 10 pages
- publisher
- Royal Society Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:33593189
- scopus:85101711912
- ISSN
- 0962-8452
- DOI
- 10.1098/rspb.2020.3136
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s).
- id
- 669b33a2-5178-42fa-98fd-e07afe36cdb9
- date added to LUP
- 2021-11-23 12:31:04
- date last changed
- 2025-01-13 18:33:21
@article{669b33a2-5178-42fa-98fd-e07afe36cdb9,
abstract = {{<p>Developmental plasticity is ubiquitous in natural populations, but the underlying causes and fitness consequences are poorly understood. For consumers, nutritional variation of juvenile diets is probably associated with plasticity in developmental rates, but little is known about how diet quality can affect phenotypic trajectories in ways that might influence survival to maturity and lifetime reproductive output. Here, we tested how the diet quality of a freshwater detritivorous isopod (Asellus aquaticus), in terms of elemental ratios of diet (i.e. carbon: nitrogen: phosphorus; C: N: P), can affect (i) developmental rates of body size and pigmentation and (ii) variation in juvenile survival. We reared 1047 individuals, in a full-sib split-family design (29 families), on either a high- (low C: P, C: N) or low-quality (high C: P, C: N) diet, and quantified developmental trajectories of body size and pigmentation for every individual over 12 weeks. Our diet contrast caused strong divergence in the developmental rates of pigmentation but not growth, culminating in a distribution of adult pigmentation spanning the broad range of phenotypes observed both within and among natural populations. Under low-quality diet, we found highest survival at intermediate growth and pigmentation rates. By contrast, survival under high-quality diet survival increased continuously with pigmentation rate, with longest lifespans at intermediate growth rates and high pigmentation rates. Building on previous work which suggests that visual predation mediates the evolution of cryptic pigmentation in A. aquaticus, our study shows how diet quality and composition can generate substantial phenotypic variation by affecting rates of growth and pigmentation during development in the absence of predation. </p>}},
author = {{Lürig, Moritz D. and Matthews, Blake}},
issn = {{0962-8452}},
keywords = {{development; diet quality; fitness; life history; phenotypic plasticity; stoichiometry}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{02}},
number = {{1945}},
publisher = {{Royal Society Publishing}},
series = {{Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences}},
title = {{Dietary-based developmental plasticity affects juvenile survival in an aquatic detritivore}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.3136}},
doi = {{10.1098/rspb.2020.3136}},
volume = {{288}},
year = {{2021}},
}