life history

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Egg size effects across multiple life-history stages in the marine annelid Hydroides diramphus

Authors: Richard M Allen and Dustin J Marshall

Published in: PloS ONE, volume 9, issue 7 (July 2014)

Abstract

The optimal balance of reproductive effort between offspring size and number depends on the fitness of offspring size in a particular environment.

The variable environments offspring experience, both among and within life-history stages, are likely to alter the offspring size/fitness relationship and favor different offspring sizes. Hence, the many environments experienced throughout complex life-histories present mothers with a significant challenge to optimally allocate their reproductive effort.

In a marine annelid, we tested the relationship between egg size and performance across multiple life-history stages, including: fertilization, larval development, and post-metamorphosis survival and size in the field.

We found evidence of conflicting effects of egg size on performance: larger eggs had higher fertilization under sperm-limited conditions, were slightly faster to develop pre-feeding, and were larger post-metamorphosis; however, smaller eggs had higher fertilization when sperm was abundant, and faster planktonic development; and egg size did not affect post-metamorphic survival.

The results indicate that egg size effects are conflicting in H. diramphus depending on the environments within and among life-history stages. We suggest that offspring size in this species may be a compromise between the overall costs and benefits of egg sizes in each stage and that performance in any one stage is not maximized.

Citation

Allen RM, Marshall DJ (2014) Egg size effects across multiple life-history stages in the marine annelid Hydroides diramphus. PLoS ONE 9(7): e102253 PDF 250 KB doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102253

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Circulation constrains the evolution of larval development modes and life histories in the coastal ocean

Authors: James M Pringle, James E Byers, Paula Pappalardo, John P Wares and Dustin J Marshall

Published in: Ecology, Volume 95, Issue 4 (April 2014)

Abstract

The evolutionary pressures that drive long larval planktonic durations in some coastal marine organisms, while allowing direct development in others, have been vigorously debated. We introduce into the argument the asymmetric dispersal of larvae by coastal currents and find that the strength of the currents helps determine which dispersal strategies are evolutionarily stable.

In a spatially and temporally uniform coastal ocean of finite extent, direct development is always evolutionarily stable. For passively drifting larvae, long planktonic durations are stable when the ratio of mean to fluctuating currents is small and the rate at which larvae increase in size in the plankton is greater than the mortality rate (both in units of per time). However, larval behavior that reduces downstream larval dispersal for a given time in plankton will be selected for, consistent with widespread observations of behaviors that reduce dispersal of marine larvae. Larvae with long planktonic durations are shown to be favored not for the additional dispersal they allow, but for the additional fecundity that larval feeding in the plankton enables.

We analyzed the spatial distribution of larval life histories in a large database of coastal marine benthic invertebrates and documented a link between ocean circulation and the frequency of planktotrophy in the coastal ocean. The spatial variation in the frequency of species with planktotrophic larvae is largely consistent with our theory; increases in mean currents lead to a decrease in the fraction of species with planktotrophic larvae over a broad range of temperatures.

Full paper

Pringle JM, Byers JE, Pappalardo P, Wares JP, Marshall JP (2014) Circulation constrains the evolution of larval development modes and life histories in the coastal ocean. Ecology  95(4):1022–1032. PDFPDF 1.5 MB doi:10.1890/13-0970.1

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Phenotypic links among life-history stages are complex and context-dependent in a marine invertebrate: interactions among offspring size, larval nutrition and postmetamorphic density

Authors: Richard M Allen and Dustin J Marshall

Published in: Functional Ecology, volume 27, issue 6 (December 2013)

Abstract

Examples of simple phenotypic relationships, where variation in one stage directly affects phenotypic variation in a subsequent stage, are documented in most taxa. However, environmental variation can mediate these relationships, and because most organisms develop through multiple life-history stages, each stage-dependent environment has the potential to create new phenotypic relationships and interfere with existing relationships.

Despite the likelihood of complex phenotypic interactions among life-history stages, and the potential for these interactions to resonate throughout the life history, there are few tests of the problem and few predictions of how these phenotypic interactions are resolved.

Hydroides diramphus
Hydroides diramphus, a polychaete tube worm found in cosmopolitan benthic marine assemblages. Image by Richard Allen.

Here, we examined the interdependent effects of three sources of phenotypic variation on the performance of a marine tube worm. Sources of phenotypic variation included: offspring size, larval nutrition and juvenile density.

We found highly context-dependent relationships between these factors and postmetamorphic performance. Within the overarching result of context dependence, we found: interactions could negate and reverse relationships; early-stage phenotypes could persist to postmetamorphosis; later, life-history environments could contribute more to recruit phenotypes than early-stages; and late-stage variation can depend on early-stage phenotypes.

Our results demonstrate that while simple phenotypic links among the egg, larval and post-recruitment stages may be common and important contributors to growth and survival, these relationships should be considered in the context of the organism’s life experience. Each phenotypic link among stages can potentially be complex and depend on prior experience, current state and the subsequent environments experienced.

Full paper

Allen R, Marshall DJ (2013) Phenotypic links among life-history stages are complex and context-dependent in a marine invertebrate: interactions among offspring size, larval nutrition, and post-metamorphic density. Functional Ecology, 27(6): 1358–1366 PDFPDF 390 KB doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.12117