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Individual-level pace-of-life syndromes in annual killifish are mediated by intersexual and interspecific differences

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Abstract

Pace-of-life syndromes (POLS) describe covariations between life history (such as growth rate and age at maturity), behaviour (e.g. activity or boldness) and physiology (e.g. metabolic rate) along an axis from fast to slow lifestyles. This powerful concept can be applicable at a range of scales, from broad interspecific contrasts to the individual intra-population level, though its generality has recently been questioned. Using two species of African annual fishes with fast lifestyles, we tested how individual-level POLS covary between the sexes and contrasting social environments. Measuring three key metabolic parameters (standard metabolic rate, SMR; maximum metabolic rate, MMR; and aerobic scope, AS), we found extensive variation between species and sexes in the expression of POLS. Social environment affected individual metabolic traits, but not their covariation with behaviour and life history traits. In accordance with the POLS prediction, we observed a positive association between MMR, AS and boldness, and a negative association between MMR, AS and lifespan in Nothobranchius orthonotus males, although trait covariations were opposite in N. orthonotus females. In Nothobranchius pienaari, we confirmed the predicted negative correlation between SMR and lifespan which was not sex-specific. Contrary to POLS predictions, we observed a negative correlation between SMR and boldness in N. pienaari. Finally, there was no link between activity levels or size at maturity and metabolic traits in either species. Overall, we demonstrated limited support for POLS predictions, but found that specific pace-of-life trait associations were mediated by both interspecific and intersexual differences.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Alexander Kotrschal and two anonymous referees for constructive comments and Rowena Spence for comments and linguistic corrections.

Funding

Funding came from Czech Science Foundation (19-01781S).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Květná 8, 603 65, Brno, Czech Republic

    Caroline Methling, Radim Blažek, Radomil Řežucha & Martin Reichard

  2. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

    Radim Blažek & Martin Reichard

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  1. Caroline Methling
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Contributions

MR conceived the study and contributed to writing. CM, RB and RR performed experimental work. CM analyzed data and drafted the paper. All authors commented on the final version of the paper.

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Correspondence to Martin Reichard.

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The research was conducted with the approval of ethical committees of the Institute of Vertebrate Biology (No. 163 − 12) and the Ministry of Agriculture (CZ 62760203), and complies with the legal regulations of the Czech Republic.

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Methling, C., Blažek, R., Řežucha, R. et al. Individual-level pace-of-life syndromes in annual killifish are mediated by intersexual and interspecific differences. Evol Ecol 34, 745–761 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-020-10059-9

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