Wang Yakun, Hong Xiaoyou, Liu Xiaoli, Li Wei, Chen Chen, Zhu Junxian, Wei Chengqing, Zhu Xinping, Yu Lingyun
Key Laboratory of Tropical & Subtropical Fishery Resource Application & Cultivation of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Pearl River Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Guangzhou 510380, China.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Jul 6;13(13):2219. doi: 10.3390/ani13132219.
Offspring size-number trade-off is a critical component of life-history theory and is important for further understanding the reproductive strategies of animals. The relationship between this trade-off and maternal size has been explored in several turtle species, except for the Asian yellow pond turtle, . To investigate how the maternal condition affects offspring size and number, we explored the relationships among the maternal body size and the number and size of cultured hatchlings using a 4-year dataset. Our results showed that different females not only produced different sizes of offspring but also produced different numbers of offspring. No trade-off in egg size number was detected. According to regression analysis, we did not find that the maternal body size significantly influenced the offspring mass; however, we detected that the offspring size was significantly correlated with the clutch size and maternal age. The mean body mass of offspring increased with maternal age, and the clutch size varied significantly over four years, which was correlated with offspring size, maternal body size and age. However, the number of offspring per female increased with the maternal plastron length rather than age. Our results were inconsistent with the optimal offspring size theory in that females did not increase their offspring size but rather increased the offspring number to increase their fitness, which will also provide a basis for the efficient cultivation management of turtles.
后代大小与数量的权衡是生活史理论的关键组成部分，对于进一步理解动物的繁殖策略很重要。除亚洲黄额盒龟外，已经在几种龟类中探讨了这种权衡与母体大小之间的关系。为了研究母体状况如何影响后代的大小和数量，我们利用一个为期4年的数据集，探讨了母体大小与养殖幼体数量和大小之间的关系。我们的结果表明，不同的雌性不仅产生不同大小的后代，而且产生的后代数量也不同。未检测到卵大小与数量之间的权衡。根据回归分析，我们没有发现母体大小对后代质量有显著影响；然而，我们检测到后代大小与窝卵数和母体年龄显著相关。后代的平均体重随母体年龄增加，窝卵数在四年间有显著变化，这与后代大小、母体大小和年龄相关。然而，每只雌性的后代数量随母体腹甲长度增加，而不是随年龄增加。我们的结果与最佳后代大小理论不一致，因为雌性不是增加后代大小，而是增加后代数量以提高其适合度，这也将为龟类的高效养殖管理提供依据。
