Impact of Environmental Covariation in Growth and Mortality on Evolving Maturation Reaction Norms

Type Article
Date 2011-04
Language English
Author(s) Marty Lise1, Dieckmann Ulf2, Rochet Marie-Joelle3, Ernande BrunoORCID1, 2
Affiliation(s) 1 : IFREMER, Lab Ressources Halieut, F-62231 Boulogne, France.
2 : Int Inst Appl Syst & Anal, Evolut & Ecol Program, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria.
3 : IFREMER, F-44311 Nantes 03, France.
Source American Naturalist (0003-0147) (Univ Chicago Press), 2011-04 , Vol. 177 , N. 4 , P. E98-E118
DOI 10.1086/658988
WOS© Times Cited 24
Keyword(s) phenotypic plasticity, growth-reproduction trade-off, source-sink population structure, density dependence, selection gradient
Abstract Maturation age and size have important fitness consequences through their effects on survival probabilities and body sizes. The evolution of maturation reaction norms in response to environmental covariation in growth and mortality is therefore a key subject of life-history theory. The eco-evolutionary model we present and analyze here incorporates critical features that earlier studies of evolving maturation reaction norms have often neglected: the trade-off between growth and reproduction, source-sink population structure, and population regulation through density-dependent growth and fecundity. We report the following findings. First, the evolutionarily optimal age at maturation can be decomposed into the sum of a density-dependent and a density-independent component. These components measure, respectively, the hypothetical negative age at which an individual's length would be 0 and the delay in maturation relative to this offset. Second, along any growth trajectory, individuals mature earlier when mortality is higher. This allows us to deduce, third, how the shapes of evolutionarily optimal maturation reaction norms depend on the covariation between growth and mortality (positive or negative, linear or curvilinear, and deterministic or probabilistic). Providing eco-evolutionary explanations for many alternative reaction-norm shapes, our results appear to be in good agreement with current empirical knowledge on maturation dynamics.
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