Body size-specific maternal effects on the offspring environment shape juvenile phenotypes in Atlantic salmon |
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Authors: | Njal Rollinson Jeffrey A Hutchings |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, B3H 4J1, Canada |
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Abstract: | Positive associations between maternal investment per offspring and maternal body size have been explained as adaptive responses
by females to predictable, body size-specific maternal influences on the offspring’s environment. As a larger per-offspring
investment increases maternal fitness when the quality of the offspring environment is low, optimal egg size may increase
with maternal body size if larger mothers create relatively poor environments for their eggs or offspring. Here, we manipulate
egg size and rearing environments (gravel size, nest depth) of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment. We find that the incubation environment typical of large and small mothers can exert
predictable effects on offspring phenotypes, but the nature of these effects provides little support to the prediction that
smaller eggs are better suited to nest environments created by smaller females (and vice versa). Our data indicate that the
magnitude and direction of phenotypic differences between small and large offspring vary among maternal nest environments,
underscoring the point that removal of offspring from the environmental context in which they are provisioned in the wild
can bias experimentally derived associations between offspring size and metrics of offspring fitness. The present study also
contributes to a growing literature which suggests that the fitness consequences of egg size variation are often more pronounced
during the early juvenile stage, as opposed to the egg or larval stage. |
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