Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservational Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservational Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Zool Res. 2017 Mar 18;38(2):81-87. doi: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2017.011.
Food availability significantly affects an animal's energy metabolism, and thus its phenotype, survival, and reproduction. Maternal and offspring responses to food conditions are critical for understanding population dynamics and life-history evolution of a species. In this study, we conducted food manipulation experiments in field enclosures to identify the effect of food restriction on female reproductive traits and postpartum body condition, as well as on hatchling phenotypes, in a lacertid viviparous lizard from the Inner Mongolian desert steppe of China. Females under low-food availability treatment (LFT) had poorer immune function and body condition compared with those under high-food availability treatment (HFT). The food availability treatments significantly affected the litter size and litter mass of the females, but not their gestation period in captivity or brood success, or the body size, sprint speed, and sex ratio of the neonates. Females from the LFT group had smaller litter sizes and, therefore, lower litter mass than those from the HFT group. These results suggest that female racerunners facing food restriction lay fewer offspring with unchanged body size and locomotor performance, and incur a cost in the form of poor postpartum body condition and immune function. The flexibility of maternal responses to variable food availability represents an important life strategy that could enhance the resistance of lizards to unpredictable environmental change.
食物的可获得性显著影响动物的能量代谢，进而影响其表型、生存和繁殖。了解母体和后代对食物条件的反应对于理解物种的种群动态和生活史进化至关重要。在这项研究中，我们在野外围栏中进行了食物操纵实验，以确定食物限制对雌性繁殖特征和产后身体状况的影响，以及对来自中国内蒙古荒漠草原的蜥蜴幼体表型的影响。与高食物可获得性处理（HFT）相比，低食物可获得性处理（LFT）的雌性具有较差的免疫功能和身体状况。食物可获得性处理显著影响了雌性的窝产仔数和窝仔质量，但对其在圈养中的妊娠期或繁殖成功率，或幼体的体型、冲刺速度和性别比例没有影响。LFT 组的雌性产仔数较少，因此窝仔质量也低于 HFT 组。这些结果表明，面临食物限制的蜥蜴产下的后代数量较少，体型和运动性能不变，而且产后身体状况和免疫功能较差，这是一种代价。母体对可变食物可获得性的反应的灵活性代表了一种重要的生活策略，可增强蜥蜴对不可预测的环境变化的抵抗力。
