Local adaptation of antipredator behaviors in populations of a temperate reef fish
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HIGHLIGHTED STUDENT RESEARCH
Local adaptation of antipredator behaviors in populations of a temperate reef fish Darien Satterfield1 · Darren W. Johnson1 Received: 27 June 2019 / Accepted: 9 September 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The temperament of animals can vary among individuals and among populations, but it is often unclear whether spatial variation in temperament is the result of acclimation to local environmental conditions or genetic adaptation to spatial differences in natural selection. This study tested whether populations of a marine fish that experience different levels of mortality and fishing exhibited local adaptation in behaviors related to predator avoidance and evasion. First, we measured variation in reactivity to perceived risk in wild populations of black surfperch (Embiotoca jacksoni). We compared flight initiation distances (FID) between populations with significantly different mortality rates. After finding that FID values were substantially lower in the low-risk locations, we tested for local adaptation by rearing lab-born offspring from both high- and low-risk populations in a common environment before measuring their behavior. Lab-reared offspring from high- and lowrisk populations exhibited significant differences in several behaviors related to reactivity. Between 23 and 43% of the total variation in behaviors we measured could be attributed to source population. These results thus suggest that a substantial amount of spatial variation in behaviors related to predator evasion may represent local adaptation. In addition, behaviors we measured had an average, broad-sense heritability of 0.24, suggesting that the behavioral tendencies of these populations have some capacity to evolve further in response to any changes in selection. Keywords Animal personality · Behavioral syndromes · Fishery selection · Heritability · Reactivity · Life history · Marine protected areas · Natural selection
Introduction
Communicated by Aaron J. Wirsing. Populations of animals that are separated in space often exhibit consistent differences in behavior, but the degree to which these differences represent genetic adaptation to local environments is often unclear. In this study we found locally-adapted temperament that likely resulted from a combination of heritable variation in behaviors and spatial variation in selection via fishing mortality. Our results emphasize that predation, including fishing mortality, can be a strong force shaping the evolution of behavior and that local adaptation in temperament may be prevalent in the wild. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04757-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Darien Satterfield [email protected] 1
Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, Long Beach, CA 90840, USA
The temperament of an animal may be characterized by a suite of behavioral tendencies that define
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