Data from: Egg-laying environment modulates offspring responses to predation risk in an amphibian

Predator-induced plasticity has been in the focus of evolutionary ecological research in the last decades, but the consequences of temporal variation in the presence of cues predicting offspring environment have remained controversial. This is partly due to the fact that the role of early environmental effects has scarcely been scrutinized in this context while also controlling for potential maternal effects. In this study we investigated how past environmental conditions, i.e. different combinations of risky or safe adult (pre-natal) and oviposition (early post-natal) environments affected offspring’s plastic responses in hatching time and locomotor activity to predation risk during development in the smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris). We found that females did not adjust their reproductive investment to the perceived level of risk in the adult environment, and this pre-natal environment had generally negligible effect on offspring phenotype. However, when predator cues were absent during oviposition, larvae raised in the presence of predator cues delayed their hatching and exhibited a decreased activity compared to control larvae developing without predator cues, which responses are advantageous when predators pose a threat to hatched larvae. In the presence of predator cues during oviposition, the difference in hatching time persisted,but the difference in general locomotor activity disappeared between risk-exposed and control larvae. Our findings provide clear experimental evidence that fine-scale temporal variation in a predictive cue during and after egg-laying interactively affect offspring phenotype, and highlight the importance of the early post-natal environment, which may exert a substantial influence on progeny’s phenotype also under natural conditions.近几十年来，捕食者诱导的可塑性（predator-induced plasticity）一直是进化生态学研究的核心议题，但用于预测子代生存环境的线索的存在情况随时间变化所带来的后果，至今仍存在较大争议。这一争议的产生，部分源于在此研究框架下，早期环境效应的作用极少被系统探究，且相关研究往往未同时控制潜在的母体效应。本研究以普通滑螈（Lissotriton vulgaris）为实验对象，探究了过往环境条件——即成年个体所处的危险/安全环境（产前环境）与产卵（产后早期）环境的不同组合——如何影响子代在发育过程中对捕食风险的可塑性响应，具体涵盖孵化时间与运动活性两个维度。研究结果显示：雌性个体并未根据其所处成年环境中感知到的风险水平调整繁殖投入，且该产前环境对子代表型的整体影响可忽略不计。然而，当产卵过程中无捕食者线索时，相较于在无捕食者线索环境中发育的对照组幼虫，暴露于捕食者线索环境中的幼虫孵化时间延迟，且运动活性显著降低；而当捕食者对已孵化幼虫构成生存威胁时，这类响应具备适应性优势。若产卵过程中存在捕食者线索，则风险暴露组与对照组幼虫的孵化时间差异依然存在，但二者的总体运动活性差异则完全消失。本研究结果为“产卵期间及产卵后，预测性线索的精细时间变异会交互影响子代表型”这一结论提供了明确的实验证据，并凸显了产后早期环境的重要性——在自然条件下，该环境也可能对子代的表型产生显著影响。