Why are offspring born larger when it is colder? Phenotypic plasticity for offspring size in the cladoceran Simocephalus vetulus (Müller)


Autoria(s): Perrin N.
Data(s)

1988

Resumo

It has been predicted on theorerical grounds (Sibly & Calow, 1983; Taylor & Williams, 1984) that optimal offspring size should be highly sensitive to juvenile growth and survival rates. To test such models, genetically-identical individuals of Simicephalus vetulus were reared at different temperatures and monitored for offspring size and juvenile growth rate. As adult size correlates negatively with temperature, an analysis of covariance was performed to separate the effects of temperature and maternal size. The result is that offspring size indeed correlates negatively with juvenile growth rate. Comparisons are made with field observation of several authors on seasonal variation of offspring size and alternative explanations are discussed. It is concluded that present experiments support the prediction of the theoretical models.

Identificador

https://serval.unil.ch/?id=serval:BIB_00D0EA334A0D

isbn:0269-8463

isiid:000208584400002

doi:10.2307/2389399

Idioma(s)

en

Fonte

Functional Ecology, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 283-288

Palavras-Chave #Cladoceran: offsrping size; groeth; phenotypic plasticity; life-history theory
Tipo

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

article