The importance of parentage in assessing temperature effects on fish early life history: a review of the experimental literature

Abstract

Climate change and human development are altering aquatic thermal regimes, highlighting the need to understand how fish fitness may be impacted across a generational boundary. We reviewed experimental temperature studies investigating the links between parents and progeny, asking questions regarding the taxa studied, broodfish used, offspring traits examined, experimental durations and research motivations. We identified forty-one peer-reviewed articles examining the effects of pre-spawning adult temperature holding on offspring. These studies showed a strong focus on the order Salmoniformes (46% of studies) and aquaculturally driven research (66%). The use of wild broodfish was rare (12%) and the majority of experiments (83%) did not examine offspring consequences beyond hatch. We also identified 56 articles investigating how incubation temperature and parental influences affect embryonic and larval development. We demonstrate that these studies are not common in comparison to the majority of incubation thermal experiments that do not employ controlled parental breeding designs. However, 52 out of 56 studies we reviewed reported maternal, paternal or family identity influenced offspring responses to temperature. In characterizing these studies, Salmoniformes were the most studied order (52%), wild broodfish were more commonly used (55%), aquaculture motivations were less evident (23%), and few studies investigated offspring performance or traits beyond endogenous yolk stages. Overall, we suggest it is beneficial to experimentally examine temperature with consideration to parent-progeny relationships. To broaden our current understanding of intergenerational temperature effects, we recommend an increased focus on wild populations, offspring physiological and performance measures, later offspring development stages, and expanding research in nonsalmonid species.

A Genetic Test of Sexual Size Dimorphism in Pre-Emergent Chinook Salmon

“…Given the small degree of SSD observed in our study, it should not be necessary to control for sex in studies at the pre-feeding stage. However, it is still important to account for parental effects, as also advocated by Burt et al [32]. In our study, most of the variation in O. tshawytscha alevin weight ( W ) was attributed to differences among dams (i.e., 88.9% at 10 °C; 68.1% at 15 °C), with most (86%) of the explained variation among dams due to variation in mean egg diameter.…”

Aspects of Embryonic and Larval Development in Bighead Carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis and Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix

“…We found the degree of change small enough to use one T min for all embryonic stages and another for larval stages. T min is influenced by maternal history, acclimation temperature, stock and population differences and other environmental factors [25,26,29,32,33]. Values are best-fit data based on all temperature treatments for each species and are best used as an estimate for fish and conditions found in waterways of central North America.…”

“…Burt et al [33], state that maternal/paternal identity influenced offspring responses to temperature in most studies. Although there was no direct test for parental influences in this study, the limited data seems to indicate an effect.…”

Beyond the mean: The role of variability in predicting ecological effects of stream temperature on salmon

“…Murray and McPhail (1988) identified species differences in the relationship between temperature and emergence timing suggestive of adaption to particular thermal regimes that maximize survival and maintain favorable emergence timing. A recent review of effects of parentage on the effects of temperature at early life histories (Burt et al 2011) indicates a strong need to more closely examine intergenerational responses to water temperature patterns.…”