The influence of juvenile and adult environments on life-history trajectories

Taborsky, Barbara

doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3347

Cited by 170 publications

(197 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(66 reference statements)

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“…So far, delayed effects of early female environment on egg size have been reported only for resource quality [25,29,32]. Besides egg size, early nutrition also affected growth, body size and other reproductive traits [25,32,49,50]. Here, we show for the first time that early environment effects pertain to predation risk.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Juvenile exposure to predator cues induces a larger egg size in fish

Segers

Taborsky

2011

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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When females anticipate a hazardous environment for their offspring, they can increase offspring survival by producing larger young. Early environmental experience determines egg size in different animal taxa. We predicted that a higher perceived predation risk by juveniles would cause an increase in the sizes of eggs that they produce as adults. To test this, we exposed juveniles of the mouthbrooding cichlid Eretmodus cyanostictus in a split-brood experiment either to cues of a natural predator or to a control situation. After maturation, females that had been confronted with predators produced heavier eggs, whereas clutch size itself was not affected by the treatment. This effect cannot be explained by a differential female body size because the predator treatment did not influence growth trajectories. The observed increase of egg mass is likely to be adaptive, as heavier eggs gave rise to larger young and in fish, juvenile predation risk drops sharply with increasing body size. This study provides the first evidence that predator cues perceived by females early in life positively affect egg mass, suggesting that these cues allow her to predict the predation risk for her offspring.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Juvenile exposure to predator cues induces a larger egg size in fish

Segers

Taborsky

2011

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…To test the phenotypic plasticity/phenotypic programming hypotheses, we also need to ensure that the full environmental crossovers occur. Interestingly, a well-controlled experimental study on female cichlid fish, Simochromis pleurospilus, in which the necessary environmental crossovers were carried out, also supported the silver spoon model; the total biomass of young produced (considered the best fitness-related trait measured) was consistently poorer for those females reared under poor conditions, whatever the adult environment (Taborsky 2006). There is obviously scope for much more experimental work here, in relation to manipulations of key parameters such as nutrition and stress hormones.…”

Section: Review Growth Phenotype and Environment P Monaghan 1639mentioning

confidence: 93%

Early growth conditions, phenotypic development and environmental change

Monaghan

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

813

932

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Phenotypic development is the result of a complex interplay involving the organism's own genetic make-up and the environment it experiences during development. The latter encompasses not just the current environment, but also indirect, and sometimes lagged, components that result from environmental effects on its parents that are transmitted to their developing offspring in various ways and at various stages. These environmental effects can simply constrain development, for example, where poor maternal condition gives rise to poorly provisioned, low-quality offspring. However, it is also possible that environmental circumstances during development shape the offspring phenotype in such a way as to better prepare it for the environmental conditions it is most likely to encounter during its life. Studying the extent to which direct and indirect developmental responses to environmental effects are adaptive requires clear elucidation of hypotheses and careful experimental manipulations. In this paper, I outline how the different paradigms applied in this field relate to each other, the main predictions that they produce and the kinds of experimental data needed to distinguish among competing hypotheses. I focus on birds in particular, but the theories discussed are not taxon specific. Environmental influences on phenotypic development are likely to be mediated, in part at least, by endocrine systems. I examine evidence from mechanistic and functional avian studies and highlight the general areas where we lack key information.

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“…The extent to which phenotypic sensitivity to environmental cues changes during development has been examined in a variety of species and traits (Hinton and McNamara, 1984;Meyer, 1987;Bouvier, 1988;Lieberman et al, 2001;Lieberman et al, 2003;Dufty et al, 2002;Marchinko, 2003;Taborsky, 2006;Hoverman and Relyea, 2007;Kotrschal and Taborsky, 2010;Serrat, 2013). Although these studies have documented substantial variation in how plasticity varies with age, there appears to be a general tendency for plasticity to decrease as organisms mature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching an old jaw new tricks: Diet-induced plasticity in a model organism, from weaning to adulthood

Scott

McAbee

Eastman

et al. 2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Many organisms exhibit a decrease in the ability to modify their phenotypes in response to shifts in environmental conditions as they mature. Such age-dependent plasticity has important implications in a variety of evolutionary and ecological contexts, particularly with respect to understanding adaptive responses to heterogeneous environments. In this study we used experimental diet manipulation to examine the life-history trajectory of plasticity in the feeding complex of a model organism, the white rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). We demonstrate that, contrary to expectations derived from previous cross-sectional studies of skeletal plasticity, the jaws of weanlings and young adults exhibit similar increases in relative bone cross-sectional areas in response to the introduction of mechanically challenging foods into their diets. Furthermore, we present evidence that sensitivity to loading patterns persists well into adulthood in some regions of the masticatory apparatus in rabbits, indicating that there is an extended window of opportunity to respond to changes in dietary properties during an animal's life span. We conclude that certain aspects of the facial skeleton of rabbits, and perhaps mammals in general, are sensitive to environmental stimuli long after skeletal maturity is achieved, highlighting the importance of plasticity as a source of adaptive variation at later life-history stages.

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The influence of juvenile and adult environments on life-history trajectories

Cited by 170 publications

References 42 publications

Juvenile exposure to predator cues induces a larger egg size in fish

Juvenile exposure to predator cues induces a larger egg size in fish

Early growth conditions, phenotypic development and environmental change

Teaching an old jaw new tricks: Diet-induced plasticity in a model organism, from weaning to adulthood

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