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Adaptation of a prey population to increasing predation risks

  • ROTIFERA XVI
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Abstract

To test the hypotheses that multigenerational predation risk favors clones with longer postero-lateral spines and a larger body, and that fitness consequences of selection depend on both tested fitness variables and selection intensity, we expose replicate Brachionus dorcas populations in low (LK) and high (HK) concentrations of Asplanchna kairomones. Over 60 days (23 asexual generations) of selection, LK-selected populations showed the highest equilibrium population densities, and median mictic ratios and postero-lateral spine lengths, and HK-selected populations showed the lowest equilibrium population densities, the highest mictic ratios, and the longest postero-lateral spines, among all the control and treatment populations. In the absence of Asplanchna kairomones, and compared with populations with the control selection history, populations with an LK selection history showed increased growth rates/intrinsic rates of population increase and net reproductive rates, but decreased mictic ratios, indicating three fitness gains and a fitness cost; and those with an HK selection history showed increased life expectancy at hatching and mictic ratios, but decreased growth rates, indicating two fitness gains and a fitness cost. Asplanchna kairomones might increase the heritability of higher equilibrium densities or mictic ratios, and longer postero-lateral spines, and thus enable the prey to survive predation.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 31971562, 31470015) and University Synergy Innovation Program of Anhui Province (Grant no. GXXT-2020-075).

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  1. Ling Pan and Han Zhu share first authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collaborative Innovation Center of Recovery and Reconstruction of Degraded Ecosystem in Wanjiang Basin Co-funded By Anhui Province and Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, School of Ecology and Environment, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241002, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Ling Pan, Han Zhu, Yan Wang, Bao-Chun Shi, Xin-Feng Cheng, Ya-Li Ge, Xian-Ling Xiang, Xin-Li Wen & Yi-Long Xi

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  1. Ling Pan
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by LP and HZ. The first draft of the manuscript was written by LP and Y-LX, and all authors commented on the previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yi-Long Xi.

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The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration, or published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full). The submitted work is original and presents all results of a single study clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. All authors adhered to discipline-specific rules for acquiring and processing data. No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the authors’ own. Proper acknowledgements to other works have been given. No material is verbatim copied.

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Pan, L., Zhu, H., Wang, Y. et al. Adaptation of a prey population to increasing predation risks. Hydrobiologia 851, 3097–3107 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-023-05369-2

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