title: Does energy availability predict gastropod reproductive strategies?
abstract: The diversity of reproductive strategies in nature is shaped by a plethora of factors including energy availability. For example, both low temperatures and limited food availability could increase larval exposure to predation by slowing development, selecting against pelagic and/or feeding larvae. The frequency of hermaphroditism could increase under low food availability as population density (and hence mate availability) decreases. We examine the relationship between reproductive/life-history traits and energy availability for 189 marine gastropod families. Only larval type was related to energy availability with the odds of having planktotrophic larvae versus direct development decreasing by 1% with every one-unit increase in the square root of carbon flux. Simultaneous hermaphroditism also potentially increases with carbon flux, but this effect disappears when accounting for evolutionary relationships among taxa. Our findings are in contrast to some theory and empirical work demonstrating that hermaphroditism should increase and planktotrophic development should decrease with decreasing productivity. Instead, they suggest that some reproductive strategies are too energetically expensive at low food availabilities, or arise only when energy is available, and others serve to capitalize on opportunities for aggregation or increased energy availability.
authors.affiliation: National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, 2024 West Main Street, Suite A200, Durham, NC 27705, USA Department of Biology, Duke University, PO Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708, USA cmcclain@nescent.org.
authors.forename: Craig R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: McClain
authors.affiliation: National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, 2024 West Main Street, Suite A200, Durham, NC 27705, USA Department of Biology, Duke University, PO Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Filler
authors.affiliation: National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, 2024 West Main Street, Suite A200, Durham, NC 27705, USA Department of Biology, West Chester University, 750 South Church Street, West Chester, PA 19383, USA.
authors.forename: Josh R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Auld
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D059001:Aquatic Organisms; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D012734:Disorders of Sex Development; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D049851:Gastropoda / Q000196:embryology / Q000502:physiology*; D007814:Larva; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D010933:Plankton; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D012098:Reproduction / Q000502:physiology*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon
keywords: density; hermaphroditism; larvae; life history; productivity; temperature