Laboratoire Ecologie & Evolution, CNRS-UPMC, UMR 7625, 75005 Paris, France.
Curr Biol. 2013 Jul 22;23(14):1320-3. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.05.047. Epub 2013 Jul 3.
Environmental variations are usually thought to require a nonanecdotal intensity or duration to have major effects on individuals and evolutionary outputs. However, environmental variations of weak intensity and short duration could be of major importance when they influence key targets or critical stages. Because conditions experienced early in life can be critical determinants of life history trajectories, especially early nutrition, we tested this hypothesis by experimentally manipulating the first meal of life in the lizard Zootoca vivipara. The species is a live-bearing lizard without parental care, and it consumes small arthropods. Neonates face a great challenge in acquiring their first meal, as is the case in many species that develop skills through learning to capture live prey. We show that this single meal had an overall and long-lasting impact. Effects on dispersal arose within 10 days, and we found effects 1-2 months later on growth, recapture probability, and juvenile survival. Interestingly, we detected effects on reproduction up to 2 years later. Such a "phenotypic resonance" reveals that the influence of small and ephemeral events should not be neglected by evolutionary biologists.
环境变化通常被认为需要非偶然的强度或持续时间才能对个体和进化结果产生重大影响。然而，当环境变化影响关键目标或关键阶段时，强度弱、持续时间短的环境变化可能具有重要意义。由于生命早期经历的条件可能是生命史轨迹的关键决定因素，特别是早期营养，我们通过实验操纵 vivipara 蜥蜴的生命中的第一餐来检验这一假设。该物种是一种没有亲代照顾的胎生蜥蜴，它以小型节肢动物为食。幼体在获得第一餐时面临巨大挑战，许多通过学习捕捉活猎物来发展技能的物种也是如此。我们表明，这单一的一餐产生了全面且持久的影响。对扩散的影响在 10 天内出现，而我们在 1-2 个月后发现了对生长、再捕获概率和幼体存活率的影响。有趣的是，我们检测到 2 年后仍有繁殖方面的影响。这种“表型共振”表明，小型和短暂事件的影响不应被进化生物学家忽视。
