No Evidence for Adjustment of Maternal Investment under Alternative Mate Availability Regimes
Publication Date
10-27-2015
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
College of Natural Science and Mathematics, Biological Sciences
Keywords
Clutch size, Life history, Sex ratio, Three-spined stickleback
Abstract
Using treatments that mimic high and low availability of reproductive males, it was found that female three‐spined sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus, previously shown to adjust their mate choices when male mates were rare, did not alter their reproductive investment strategies. These results suggest that plasticity in investment is perhaps limited by physiological requirements or dependent on relatively extreme mate availability regimes. The probability of becoming reproductive, number of clutches per season (per female), initial clutch size and mass and the timing of reproduction were all independent of the experience a female had with mate availability. This suggests that pre‐copulatory plasticity in reproductive strategies may contribute more to variation in the strength and direction of sexual selection than reproductive investment in offspring.
Copyright Date
10-27-2015
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Rights Holder
The Fisheries Society of the British Isles
Provenance
Received from author
Language
English (eng)
Extent
15 pgs
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by The Fisheries Society of the British Isles. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Publication Title
Journal of Fish Biology
Volume
88
Issue
2
First Page
508
Last Page
522
ISSN
1095-8649
Recommended Citation
Weigel, E. G., Tinghitella, R. M., & Boughman, J. W. (2016). No evidence for adjustment of maternal investment under alternative mate availability regimes. Journal of Fish Biology, 88(2), 508–522. DOI: 10.1111/jfb.12793