Authors: Dustin J Marshall, Amanda K Pettersen, Michael Bode, and Craig R White

Published in: Nature Ecology & Evolution

Abstract

Metazoans must develop from zygotes to feeding organisms. In doing so, developing offspring consume up to 60% of the energy provided by their parent.

The cost of development depends on two rates: metabolic rate, which determines the rate that energy is used; and developmental rate, which determines the length of the developmental period. Both development and metabolism are highly temperature-dependent such that developmental costs should be sensitive to the local thermal environment.

Here, we develop, parameterize and test developmental cost theory, a physiologically explicit theory that reveals that ectotherms have narrow thermal windows in which developmental costs are minimized (T_opt).

Our developmental cost theory-derived estimates of T_opt predict the natural thermal environment of 71 species across seven phyla remarkably well (R²⁓0.83).

Developmental cost theory predicts that costs of development are much more sensitive to small changes in temperature than classic measures such as survival. Warming-driven changes to developmental costs are predicted to strongly affect population replenishment and developmental cost theory provides a mechanistic foundation for determining which species are most at risk. Developmental cost theory predicts that tropical aquatic species and most non-nesting terrestrial species are likely to incur the greatest increase in developmental costs from future warming.

Marshall DJ, Pettersen AK, Bode M, White CR (2020) Developmental cost theory predicts thermal environment and vulnerability to global warming. Nature Ecology & Evolution DOI PDF

Authors: Giulia Ghedini, Michel Loreau, and Dustin J Marshall

Published in: Ecology

Robert MacArthur’s niche theory makes explicit predictions on how community function should change over time in a competitive community. A key prediction is that succession progressively minimizes the energy wasted by a community, but this minimization is a trade-off between energy losses from unutilised resources and costs of maintenance. By predicting how competition determines community efficiency over time MacArthur’s theory may inform on the impacts of disturbance on community function and invasion risk.

We provide a rare test of this theory using phytoplankton communities, and find that older communities wasted less energy than younger ones but that the reduction in energy wastage was not monotonic over time. While community structure followed consistent and clear trajectories, community function was more idiosyncratic among adjoining successional stages and driven by total community biomass rather than species composition.

Our results suggest that subtle shifts in successional sequence can alter community efficiency and these effects determine community function independently of individual species membership.

We conclude that, at least in phytoplankton communities, general trends in community function are predictable over time accordingly to MacArthur’s theory. Tests of MacArthur’s minimization principle across very different systems should be a priority given the potential of this theory to inform on the functional properties of communities.

Ghedini G, Loreau M, Marshall DJ (2020) Community efficiency during succession: a test of MacArthur’s minimization principle in phytoplankton communities. Ecology PDF DOI

Authors: Martino E Malerba, and Dustin J Marshall

Published in: Evolution

Abstract

Body size often declines with increasing temperature. Although there is ample evidence for this effect to be adaptive, it remains unclear whether size shrinking at warmer temperatures is driven by specific properties of being smaller (e.g., surface to volume ratio) or by traits that are correlated with size (e.g., metabolism, growth).

We used 290 generations (22 months) of artificial selection on a unicellular phytoplankton species to evolve a 13‐fold difference in volume between small‐selected and large‐selected cells and tested their performance at 22 °C (usual temperature), 18 °C (−4), and 26 °C (+4).

Warmer temperatures increased fitness in small‐selected individuals and reduced fitness in large‐selected ones, indicating changes in size alone are sufficient to mediate temperature‐dependent performance.

Our results are incompatible with the often‐cited geometric argument of warmer temperature intensifying resource limitation. Instead, we find evidence that is consistent with larger cells being more vulnerable to reactive oxygen species. By engineering cells of different sizes, our results suggest that smaller‐celled species are pre‐adapted for higher temperatures.

We discuss the potential repercussions for global carbon cycles and the biological pump under climate warming.

Malerba ME, Marshall DJ (2019) Testing the drivers of the temperature-size covariance using artificial selection. Evolution PDF DOI

 

Authors: Evatt Chirgwin, Dustin J Marshall, and Keyne Monro

Published in: Functional Ecology

Abstract

Global warming may threaten fertility, which is a key component of individual fitness and vital for population persistence. For males, fertility relies on the ability of sperm to collide and fuse with eggs; consequently, sperm morphology is predicted to be a prime target of selection owing to its effects on male function.

In aquatic environments, warming will expose gametes of external fertilizers to the physiological effects of higher temperature and the physical effects of lower viscosity. However, the consequences of either effect for fertility, and for selection acting on sperm traits to maintain fertility, are poorly understood.

Here, we test how independent changes in water temperature and viscosity alter male fertility and selection on sperm morphology in an externally fertilizing marine tubeworm. To create five fertilization environments, we manipulate temperature to reflect current-day conditions (16.5 °C), projected near-term warming (21 °C) and projected long-term warming (25 °C), then adjust two more environments at 21 °C and 25 °C to the viscosity of environments at 16.5 °C and 21 °C, respectively. We then use a split-ejaculate design to measure the fertility of focal males, and selection on their sperm, in each environment.

Projected changes in temperature and viscosity act independently to reduce male fertility, but act jointly to alter selection on sperm morphology. Specifically, environments resulting from projected warming alter selection on the sperm midpiece in ways that suggest shifts in the energetic challenges of functioning under stressful conditions. Selection also targets sperm head dimensions and tail length, irrespective of environment.

We provide the first evidence that projected changes in ocean temperature and viscosity will not only impact the fertility of marine external fertilizers, but expose their gametes to novel selection pressures that may drive them to adapt in response if gamete phenotypes are sufficiently heritable.

Chirgwin E, Marshall DJ, Monro K (2019) Physical and physiological impacts of ocean warming alter phenotypic selection on sperm morphology. Functional Ecology PDF DOI

Authors: Hayley Cameron, Tim Coulson, and Dustin J Marshall

Published in: Ecology Letters

Abstract

Species simultaneously compete with and facilitate one another. Size can mediate transitions along this competition–facilitation continuum, but the consequences for demography are unclear.

We orthogonally manipulated the size of a focal species, and the size and density of a heterospecific neighbour, in the field using a model marine system. We then parameterised a size‐structured population model with our experimental data.

We found that heterospecific size and density interactively altered the population dynamics of the focal species. Size determined whether heterospecifics facilitated (when small) or competed with (when large) the focal species, while density strengthened these interactions.

Such size‐mediated interactions also altered the pace of the focal’s life history. We provide the first demonstration that size and density mediate competition and facilitation from a population dynamical perspective. We suspect such effects are ubiquitous, but currently underappreciated.

We reiterate classic cautions against inferences about competitive hierarchies made in the absence of size‐specific data.

Cameron H, Coulson T, Marshall DJ (2019) Size and density mediate transitions between competition and facilitation. Ecology Letters PDF DOI

Authors: Hayley Cameron and Dustin J Marshall

Published in: Evolution

Abstract

Offspring sizes vary within populations but the reasons are unclear. Game‐theoretic models predict that selection will maintain offspring‐size variation when large offspring are superior competitors (i.e., competition is asymmetric), but small offspring are superior colonizers. Empirical tests are equivocal, however, and typically rely on interspecific comparisons, whereas explicit intraspecific tests are rare.

In a field study, we test whether offspring size affects competitive asymmetries using the sessile marine invertebrate, Bugula neritina. Surprisingly, we show that offspring size determines whether interactions are competitive or facilitative — large neighbors strongly facilitated small offspring, but also strongly competed with large offspring. These findings contradict the assumptions of classic theory — that is, large offspring were not superior competitors. Instead, smaller offspring actually benefit from interactions with large offspring— suggesting that asymmetric facilitation, rather than asymmetric competition, operates in our system.

We argue that facilitation of small offspring may be more widespread than currently appreciated, and may maintain variation in offspring size via negative frequency‐dependent selection.

Offspring size theory has classically viewed offspring interactions through the lens of competition alone, yet our results and those of others suggest that theory should accommodate positive interactions in explorations of offspring‐size variation.

Cameron H, Marshall DJ (2019) Can competitive asymmetries maintain offspring size variation? A manipulative field test. Evolution PDF DOI

Authors: Martino E Malerba, Craig R White, and Dustin J Marshall

Published in: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Abstract

Artificial structures are proliferating along coastlines worldwide, creating new habitat for heterotrophic filter feeders. The energy demand of this heterotrophic biomass is likely to be substantial, but is largely unquantified.

Combining in situ surveys, laboratory assays, and information obtained from geographic information systems, we estimated the energy demands of sessile invertebrates found on marine artificial structures worldwide.

At least 950,000 metric tons of heterotrophic biomass are associated with commercial ports around the world, emitting over 600 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and consuming 5 million megajoules of energy per day.

We propose the concept of a trophic “footprint” of marine urbanization, in which every square meter of artificial structure can negate the primary production of up to 130 square meters of surrounding coastal waters; collectively, these structures not only act as energy sinks and carbon sources, but also potentially reduce the productivity of coastal food webs.

Malerba ME, White CR, Marshall DJ (2019) The outsized trophic footprint of marine urbanization. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment PDF DOI

Authors: Dustin J Marshall, Steven Gaines, Robert Warner, Diego R Barneche, and Michael Bode

Published in: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Abstract

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are important tools for managing marine ecosystems. MPAs are expected to replenish nearby exploited populations through the natural dispersal of young, but the models that make these predictions rely on assumptions that have recently been demonstrated to be incorrect for most species of fish.

A meta‐analysis showed that fish reproductive output scales “hyperallometrically” with fish mass, such that larger fish produce more offspring per unit body mass than smaller fish. Because fish are often larger inside MPAs, they should exhibit disproportionately higher reproductive output as compared to fish outside of MPAs.

We explore the consequences of hyperallometric reproduction for a range of species for population replenishment and the productivity of exploited species.

We show that the reproductive contribution of fish inside MPAs has been systematically underestimated and that fisheries yields can be enhanced by the establishment of reservoirs of larger, highly fecund fish.

Marshall DJ, Gaines S, Warner R, Barneche DR, Bode M (2019) Underestimating the benefits of marine protected areas for the replenishment of fished populations. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment PDF DOI

Authors: Martino E Malerba and Dustin J Marshall

Published in: Ecology Letters

Abstract

Body size often strongly covaries with demography across species. Metabolism has long been invoked as the driver of these patterns, but tests of causal links between size, metabolism and demography within a species are exceedingly rare.

We used 400 generations of artificial selection to evolve a 2,427% size difference in the microalga Dunaliella tertiolecta. We repeatedly measured size, energy fluxes and demography across the evolved lineages. Then, we used standard metabolic theory to generate predictions of how size and demography should covary based on the scaling of energy fluxes that we measured.

The size dependency of energy remained relatively consistent in time, but metabolic theory failed to predict demographic rates, which varied unpredictably in strength and even sign across generations.

Classic theory holds that size affects demography via metabolism – our results suggest that both metabolism and size act separately to drive demography and that among‐species patterns may not predict within‐species processes.

Malerba ME, Marshall DJ (2019) Size-abundance rules? Evolution changes scaling relationships between size, metabolism and demography. Ecology Letters PDF DOI