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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Isabel SmallegangeORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Developmental plasticity alters phenotypes and can in that way change the response to selection and affect, and be affected by, population size-structure when alternative phenotypes show different life history trajectories, in an eco-evolutionary interaction. Developmental plasticity often functions to anticipate future conditions but it can also mitigate current stress conditions, raising the question if these two kinds of developmental plasticity underlie different eco-evolutionary population dynamics. Here, we tested in a long-term population experiment using the male polyphenic bulb mite (Rhizoglyphus robini), if the selective harvesting of juveniles on different developmental trajectories elicits eco-evolutionary population responses that are expected if the male polyphenism is assumed to be anticipatory or mitigating. We found that the frequency of adult males that expressed costly (fighter) morphology was lowest under the most severe juvenile harvesting conditions. This response cannot be explained if we assume that adult male phenotype expression is to anticipate adult (mating) conditions because, in that case, only the manipulation of adult performance would have an effect. This response can, however, be explained by juveniles mitigating their increased mortality risk by expediating ontogeny to forego the development of costly morphology and mature quicker but as a defenceless scrambler. If, like in mammals and birds where early-life stress effects are extensively studied, we account for such pre-adult viability selection in coldblooded species, it would allow us to better characterise natural selection on trait development like male polyphenisms, how it can affect the response to other selections in adulthood, and how such trait dynamics influence, and are influenced by, population dynamics.
Author(s): Deere JA, Smallegange IM
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Peer Community Journal
Year: 2023
Volume: 3
Online publication date: 06/12/2023
Acceptance date: 06/02/2023
Date deposited: 07/02/2023
ISSN (electronic): 2804-3871
Publisher: Peer Community In
URL: https://doi.org/10.24072/pcjournal.351
DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.351
ePrints DOI: 10.57711/3vr1-6x04
Data Access Statement: The raw data, the R scripts that we used to analyse the data, and the additional analyses on population structure can be found on Figshare: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22012589.v1 (Deere & Smallegange 2023).
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