Data for Predation and resource availability interact to drive life-history evolution in an adaptive radiation of livebearing fish

Predation risk and resource availability are two primary factors predicted by theory to drive the evolution of life histories. Yet, disentangling their roles in life-history evolution in the wild is challenging because (1) the two factors often co-vary across environments and (2) environmental effects on phenotypes can mask patterns of genotypic evolution. Here, we use the model system of the Post-Pleistocene radiation of Bahamas mosquitofish (Gambusia hubbsi) inhabiting blue holes to provide a strong test of the roles of predation and resources in life-history evolution, as the two factors do not co-vary in this system and we attempted to minimize environmental effects by raising eight populations under common laboratory conditions. We tested a priori predictions of predation- and resource-driven evolution in five life-history traits. We found that life-history evolution in Bahamas mosquitofish largely reflected complex interactions in the effects of predation and resource availability...

捕食风险与资源可获得性是理论预测的驱动生物生活史演化的两大核心因素。然而，在野外环境中厘清二者对生活史演化的作用颇具挑战，原因有二：其一，二者在不同环境中往往存在共变关系；其二，环境对表型的影响会掩盖基因型演化的模式。本研究以栖息于蓝洞的巴哈马食蚊鱼（Gambusia hubbsi）的更新世后辐射演化类群作为模型系统，对捕食与资源在生活史演化中的作用开展严谨检验。该系统中两大因素不存在共变关系，且我们通过将8个种群置于统一实验室饲养条件下，尽可能降低了环境影响。我们针对捕食和资源驱动的演化先验预测，对5个生活史性状开展了检验。研究发现，巴哈马食蚊鱼的生活史演化在很大程度上反映了捕食风险与资源可获得性的效应之间存在复杂的交互作用……