Extreme habitats are not refuges: poeciliids suffer from increased aerial predation risk in sulphidic southern Mexican habitats

Riesch, Rüdiger; Oranth, Alexandra; Dzienko, Justina; Karau, Nora; Schießl, Angela; Stadler, Stefan; Wigh, Adriana; Zimmer, Claudia; Arias‐Rodríguez, Lenin; Schlupp, Ingo; Plath, Martin

doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01522.x

Cited by 40 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Nonetheless, we removed one major selective factor from our experiment that is known to be of particular importance with regards to fitness in natural populations of livebearing fishes: predation (e.g., Reznick and Endler 1982;Reznick et al 1990). Surface mollies face a highly complex predator environment composed of piscivorous fishes, birds, reptiles and arthropods (Tobler et al 2006;Riesch et al 2010b), while cave mollies are almost exclusively exposed to predation by giant water bugs (Belostoma sp. ; e.g., Tobler 2009;Plath et al 2011), and-to a minor extent-predation by arachnids (Horstkotte et al 2010) and crustaceans (Klaus and Plath 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The offspring size/fecundity trade-off and female fitness in the Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana, Poeciliidae)

Riesch¹,

Plath²,

Schlupp³

2011

Environ Biol Fish

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Across a variety of taxa, large offspring have been demonstrated to have a fitness advantage over smaller offspring of the same species. However, producing large offspring often comes at the cost of having to produce fewer young, and the payoff (and thus, evolutionary outcome) of this trade-off is expected to vary between environments. Atlantic mollies (Poecilia mexicana: Poeciliidae, Teleostei), inhabiting a sulfidic cave and various non-sulfidic surface habitats in Tabasco (Mexico), are reproductively isolated and evolved divergent female lifehistory traits: females of the cave ecotype produce considerably fewer, but larger offspring. Stressful (sulfidic) environments may favor the production of larger offspring, as they are better able to cope with chemical stressors. It remains to be determined though if increased offspring survival outweighs the fitness cost of producing fewer but larger offspring even under benign laboratory conditions. We tested 30-day newborn survival of offspring from wildcaught P. mexicana females from diverging populations in a low-density, no predation, no cannibalism, and ad-libitum-food, benign laboratory environment. Survival rates were highly skewed towards larger cave molly offspring; however, surface molly females still had a higher fitness than cave molly females in terms of higher total numbers of surviving offspring. Our study provides evidence for an innate fitness advantage of larger cave molly offspring. Furthermore, the observed differences in life-history strategies could promote further divergence and reproductive isolation among these ecotypes of P. mexicana, because cave molly females immigrating into the adjacent surface habitats would most likely be selected against.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The offspring size/fecundity trade-off and female fitness in the Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana, Poeciliidae)

Riesch¹,

Plath²,

Schlupp³

2011

Environ Biol Fish

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“…It will also be important to determine what information about male fitness, if any, females can glean from variation in UV reflectance. Finally, the role of avian predators is poorly understood in this system, yet has been found to be a significant source of predation on other poeciliids (Riesch et al 2010).…”

Section: Non-private Signalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population divergence of private and non-private signals in wild guppies

Millar

Hendry

2011

Environ Biol Fish

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Private signalling, where conspecifics use mating signals that are difficult to detect by predators, can reduce the compromise between opposing natural and sexual selection. We investigated whether guppies, Poecilia reticulata, use an hypothesized private signal. In some areas, guppies, who can detect ultraviolet (UV) light, coexist with dangerous predators, but at least some of these cannot detect UV. In these populations of guppies, UV might be used as a private signal. We tested this hypothesis by quantifying the UV and non-UV colouration of male guppies from paired high-and low-predation sites in five rivers. We found evidence in support of the use of UV as a private signal: male guppies living with the predator generally had greater UV reflectance than male guppies living without the predator. Closer inspection revealed differences in this trend among rivers and thus suggested the influence of modifying factors. We also found that the non-UV colour of male guppies does not differ consistently between high-and low-predation environments. This result suggests that a number of factors in addition to predation act on male colour in guppies.

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“…Aquatic heteropterans ( Belostoma sp. ), for example, prey more on immigrant than resident fish (both inside the cave and in the nearby El Azufre), probably because maladapted sensory systems hamper the escape responses of migrant fish [68], and differences in rates of bird predation may play an even more important role in surface waters [69]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gradient Evolution of Body Colouration in Surface- and Cave-DwellingPoecilia mexicanaand the Role of Phenotype-Assortative Female Mate Choice

Bierbach

Penshorn

Hamfler

et al. 2013

BioMed Research International

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Ecological speciation assumes reproductive isolation to be the product of ecologically based divergent selection. Beside natural selection, sexual selection via phenotype-assortative mating is thought to promote reproductive isolation. Using the neotropical fish Poecilia mexicana from a system that has been described to undergo incipient ecological speciation in adjacent, but ecologically divergent habitats characterized by the presence or absence of toxic H2S and darkness in cave habitats, we demonstrate a gradual change in male body colouration along the gradient of light/darkness, including a reduction of ornaments that are under both inter- and intrasexual selection in surface populations. In dichotomous choice tests using video-animated stimuli, we found surface females to prefer males from their own population over the cave phenotype. However, female cave fish, observed on site via infrared techniques, preferred to associate with surface males rather than size-matched cave males, likely reflecting the female preference for better-nourished (in this case: surface) males. Hence, divergent selection on body colouration indeed translates into phenotype-assortative mating in the surface ecotype, by selecting against potential migrant males. Female cave fish, by contrast, do not have a preference for the resident male phenotype, identifying natural selection against migrants imposed by the cave environment as the major driver of the observed reproductive isolation.

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Extreme habitats are not refuges: poeciliids suffer from increased aerial predation risk in sulphidic southern Mexican habitats

Cited by 40 publications

References 47 publications

The offspring size/fecundity trade-off and female fitness in the Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana, Poeciliidae)

The offspring size/fecundity trade-off and female fitness in the Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana, Poeciliidae)

Population divergence of private and non-private signals in wild guppies

Gradient Evolution of Body Colouration in Surface- and Cave-DwellingPoecilia mexicanaand the Role of Phenotype-Assortative Female Mate Choice

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