Adult and offspring size in the ocean over 17 orders of magnitude follows two life history strategiesShow others and affiliations
2015 (English)In: Ecology, ISSN 0012-9658, E-ISSN 1939-9170, Vol. 96, no 12, p. 3303-3311Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Explaining variability in offspring vs. adult size among groups is a necessary step to determine the evolutionary and environmental constraints shaping variability in life history strategies. This is of particularly interest for life in the ocean where a diversity of offspring development strategies is observed along with variability in physical and biological forcing factors in space and time. We compiled adult and offspring size for 408 pelagic marine species covering >17 orders of magnitude in body mass including Cephalopoda, Cnidaria, Crustaceans, Ctenophora, Elasmobranchii, Mammalia, Sagittoidea, and Teleost. We find marine life following one of two distinct strategies, with offspring size being either proportional to adult size (e.g. Crustaceans, Euratatoria, Elasmobranchii and Mammalia) or invariant with adult size (e.g. Cephalopoda, Cnidaria, Sagittoidea, Teleosts and possibly Ctenophora). We discuss where these two strategies occur and how these patterns (along with the relative size of the offspring) may be shaped by physical and biological constraints in the organism's environment. This adaptive environment along with the evolutionary history of the different groups shape observed life history strategies and possible group-specific responses to changing environmental conditions (e.g. production and distribution).
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2015. Vol. 96, no 12, p. 3303-3311
Keywords [en]
Adult size, Carbon mass, Evolution, Life history, Marine animals, Offspring size, Reproductive strategy
National Category
Ecology
Research subject
Ecology, Aquatic Ecology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-45742DOI: 10.1890/14-2491.1ISI: 000367287900017Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84953249984OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-45742DiVA, id: diva2:846706
2015-08-172015-08-172021-05-05Bibliographically approved