Lehtonen Topi K, Lindström Kai, Wong Bob B M
Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland,
Oecologia. 2015 Jul;178(3):699-706. doi: 10.1007/s00442-015-3264-z. Epub 2015 Feb 20.
Body size, social setting, and the physical environment can all influence reproductive behaviours, but their interactions are not well understood. Here, we investigated how male body size, male-male competition, and water turbidity influence nest-building behaviour in the sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus), a marine fish with exclusive paternal care. We found that environmental and social factors affected the nest characteristics of small and large males differently. In particular, association between male size and the level of nest elaboration (i.e. the amount of sand piled on top of the nest) was positive only under clear water conditions. Similarly, male size and nest entrance size were positively associated only in the absence of competition. Such interactions may, in turn, help to explain the persistence of variation in reproductive behaviours, which-due to their importance in offspring survival-are otherwise expected to be under strong balancing selection.
体型、社会环境和物理环境都会影响生殖行为，但其相互作用尚未得到充分理解。在此，我们研究了雄性体型、雄雄竞争和水体浑浊度如何影响沙鳢（Pomatoschistus minutus）的筑巢行为，沙鳢是一种具有专属父性照料的海鱼。我们发现，环境和社会因素对大小不同的雄性的巢穴特征影响各异。具体而言，仅在清水条件下，雄性体型与巢穴精细程度（即堆积在巢穴顶部的沙子量）之间呈正相关。同样，仅在没有竞争的情况下，雄性体型与巢穴入口大小呈正相关。反过来，这种相互作用可能有助于解释生殖行为变异的持续性，否则由于生殖行为对后代生存的重要性，预计会受到强烈的平衡选择。
