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The influence of ambient water temperature on sperm performance and fertilization success in three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

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Abstract

Acute and long-term temperature changes caused by global warming could lead to severe ecological and physiological consequences for aquatic organisms. This might be reflected in a higher mortality rate or a reduced hatching success but elevated temperatures might also lead to accelerated growth and egg development due to higher metabolic rates. Thermal conditions could also act on male gamete function that is known to be under strong sexual selection especially in mating systems where sperm competition frequently occurs. The three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is an externally fertilizing fish species. Males are sperm limited over the course of one breeding season and the risk of sperm competition is known to be high. To study the impact of ecologically relevant water temperatures in relation to different sperm numbers on reproductive performance standardized in vitro fertilization experiments were conducted, using two different immediate temperature changes (15 and 25 °C) as all test individuals were held under the same conditions prior to the experiments. The results revealed that fertilization success differed significantly when using different sperm numbers in different water temperatures. At higher temperatures a lower number of sperm was sufficient to fertilize 50 % of the eggs. However, with increasing sperm number fertilization success saturated at 75 % in the 25 °C treatment but at about 90 % in the 15 °C treatment. A further experiment dealt with sperm swimming ability at different temperatures (5, 15 and 25 °C), showing that both sperm velocity and linearity significantly increased whereas the percentage of motile sperm decreased at higher temperatures, suggesting that under these conditions sperm might reach an unfertilized egg more rapidly but live shorter. The observed results stress the role of current and future levels of naturally occurring ambient water temperatures as an important environmental factor influencing fitness related traits.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the “Bakker”-research-group for discussion and Jan Hottentot for catching the sticklebacks. Ingolf P. Rick, Meike Hiermes, Joachim G. Frommen and anonymous referees gave meaningful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Lukas K. Hilke is acknowledged for assistance in analyzing sperm motility. This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (BA 2885/4-1).

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  1. Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, University of Bonn, An der Immenburg 1, 53121, Bonn, Germany

    Marion Mehlis & Theo C. M. Bakker

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  1. Marion Mehlis
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Correspondence to Marion Mehlis.

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Mehlis, M., Bakker, T.C.M. The influence of ambient water temperature on sperm performance and fertilization success in three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Evol Ecol 28, 655–667 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-014-9707-x

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