Abstract
Ecological specialisation is hypothesised to play a major role in the evolution of phenotypic diversity, especially following the colonisation of novel habitats. For example, cichlid fishes provide some of the most remarkable evidence for rapid ecological diversification. Here, we capitalised on a recently (≤ 40 years ago) introduced population of red devils (Amphilophus labiatus) in Australia to investigate adaptive phenotypic responses to a novel environment. We used stomach content analyses, morphometrics and laboratory experiments to test for covariation between diet and size of an important trophic trait, lip size. We found that, while maximum lip size in the study population was smaller than in the species’ natural range, the proportions of algae, insects and fish remains in the diet covaried with lip size. However, contrary to predictions, we found no evidence for lip development to be plastic under laboratory conditions in relation to substrate complexity or food manipulation, nor did we find any relationship between lip morphology and feeding performance in adults. Single nucleotide polymorphism data, in turn, suggested that the introduced population has reduced standing genetic variation, which potentially influences both phenotypic plasticity and diversity, in comparison to native populations. Together, the results suggest that morphological variation in a key trophic trait can respond rapidly to diet in a novel environment, despite reduced genetic diversity in the population.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Carlos Garita Alvarado, Fiona Kang, Rowan Jacques-Hamilton, Nicholas Deal, Rachel Fetherston, Eeling Ng, Ruby Albury, Andrej Hohmann, Stefanie Forster, Madeleine De Jong and Matthew Simpson for logistic support and animal collection, and members of the Wong and Chapple Labs, Monash University, who assisted with animal husbandry. We also thank Bernd Egger, Christian Beisel Melinda Hofmann, Mariana Leal Cardín and Gema Aguilera García for their assistance in the laboratory, with preparation of samples for genetic analysis. We thank the staff of the DNA Database of Japan (DDBJ) for their assistance with the use of the NIG supercomputer to conduct population genomic analyses. Lastly, we thank David Chapple, Walter Salzburger, Marius Rösti, Bernd Egger and Alysha Heimberg for their advice in regard to genetic analysis.
Funding
This study was funded by a Holsworth Wildlife Endowment, and a Linnean Society of New South Wales Small Research Grant, both awarded to WS. The research also received support from the SYNTHESYS Project (https://www.synthesys.info/), which is financed by European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 "Capacities" Program (to TKL and MB).
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WS, TKL and BBMW formulated the idea, developed methodology, and collected the field data. MB organised, and participated in, data collection in Nicaragua. WS wrote the first draft of the manuscript, conducted laboratory experiments and prepared samples for sequencing. WS, TKL and MR performed statistical analyses. All authors contributed to writing of the manuscript.
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Collection and experimental procedures were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Monash University, Australia (BSCI/2012/23), and complied with all relevant State and Federal laws. Collection in Nicaragua was approved by the Ministerio del Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales (MARENA), Permit Number: 013-102013.
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Sowersby, W., Lehtonen, T.K., Ravinet, M. et al. Resource trait specialisation in an introduced fish population with reduced genetic diversity. Biol Invasions 22, 2447–2460 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02264-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02264-y