Effects of early-life diet on mortality of juvenile Nucella canaliculata quantified in the laboratory after 3 months on experimental diets

The field of eco-evolutionary dynamics analyzes the reciprocal impacts that ecological and evolutionary processes have on one another on contemporary timescales. A promising approach for studying eco-evolutionary dynamics is to explore whether variation acting over rapid timescales can impose selection on existing within population-variation in functional traits. The Bodega Marine Reserve population of the Channeled Dogwhelk, Nucella canaliculata, contains a mix of drilling phenotypes. A selection experiment was performed to determine the effects of four early-life diet treatments (thin-shelled Mytilus trossulus mussels, two treatments of M. californianus from two populations known to differ in shell thickness, and acorn barnacles) on N. canaliculata phenotype. Dogwhelks were hatched in the laboratory and mortality of juvenile dogwhelks was quantified in the laboratory after 3 months on the experimental diets.