Size-associated energetic constraints on the seasonal onset of reproduction in a species with indeterminate growth

The seasonal onset of reproduction is constrained in many systems by a need to first accumulate energetic reserves. Consequently, the observation that larger individuals reproduce earlier may be due to a negative relationship between size and mass-specific basal metabolic rate that is shared across diverse taxa. However, an untested prediction of this hypothesis is that individuals should be metabolically efficient enough to escape energetic constraints above a certain size threshold. Seasonally reproducing species, such as temperate fishes, that must recover winter energy losses before reproduction and exhibit indeterminate growth are ideal models to test this prediction. We harness decade-long behavioral data on parental male smallmouth bass, Micropterus dolomieu, to investigate contributions of energetic allometry to differences in reproductive timing. At the population level, peak seasonal reproductive timing (i.e., the median date on which eggs were found in nests each year) was ne..., Study site
We conducted this study in 1999 and 2001–2009 on Pallette Lake, a 70-ha research lake in the Northern Highlands Fishery Research Area of north-central Wisconsin (46.067° N/89.604° W). The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources manages this lake, which is closed to fish migration and has a maximum depth of approximately 20 m and a mean depth of approximately 10 m. Saunders et al. (2002) describe the benthic and limnological characteristics of the lake in detail. Anglers are subject to a mandatory creel census, where caught fish must be reported to ensure regulations are followed. From 1999–2006, regulations required anglers to return to the lake any male less than 41 cm total length and from 2007 onwards all males under 51 cm had to be returned. We had significant representation of males larger than 40 cm in our analyses (13.8%).  
Annual nest census
We initiated surveys each year when the water temperature approached 15 °C, typically in mid to late May, and continued until..., All data files are in .csv format and can be loaded and viewed in RStudio or any common spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel. R file is best viewed in RStudio.