Life history trade-offs in a parental care-providing fish: the role of reproductive value, predation threat, and physiological condition on brood abandonment decisions by paternal largemouth bass

Parental care;stress;oxidative stress;nutritional condition;offspring abandonment;recruitment;reproductive success;brood loss;brood depredation;Largemouth bass;Micropterus salmoides;fitness

Zuckerman, Zachary ; Suski ; Cory D.

关键词: Parental care;    stress;    oxidative stress;    nutritional condition;    offspring abandonment;    recruitment;    reproductive success;    brood loss;    brood depredation;    Largemouth bass;    Micropterus salmoides;    fitness;   

Others  :  https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/31969/Zuckerman_Zachary.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

美国|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Parental care evolved as a means to maximize reproductive success at a cost to physiological and nutritional condition of the care-providing individual, and at a cost to future reproductive potential.Parental investment decisions are rooted in tradeoffs between these factors, and when the cost of care-provision is outweighed by potential future reproductive potential, a parent may forfeit current investment in an effort to maximize future reproductive success.Few studies have approached parental care decisions using offspring abandonment as a direct and ultimate fitness affect, and fewer yet have adopted a holistic approach to test how physiological and environmental conditions compare in influencing the decision by a parent to abandon their brood.I performed two separate, yet complementary, studies to test for the effects of several factors on brood abandonment decisions in largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides); a model parental care-providing species.First, I tested whether mating success and simulated brood depredation affect the decision by paternal largemouth bass to abandon a brood.Second, I used a multivariate approach to jointly test for the influence of nutritional condition, hormonal stress, androgen concentration, and oxidative stress of brood-guarding paternal largemouth bass, and the threat of brood depredation (i.e., brood predator density), on brood abandonment decisions.Together, my results suggested a threshold for brood loss at which paternal largemouth bass were more likely to abandon what remains of a depredated brood, and that a high threat of depredation and reduced androgen concentration also influenced the decision by paternal bass to abandon care.My findings have implications for science-based management of a highly sought-after sportfish, as well as offer a novel approach for testing the inter-related effects of various abiotic and biotic factors on parental care decisions across taxa.