Paplauskas Sam, Morton Oscar, Hunt Mollie, Courage Ashleigh, Swanney Stephanie, Dennis Stuart R, Becker Dörthe, Auld Stuart K J R, Beckerman Andrew P
Biological & Environmental Sciences University of Stirling Stirling UK.
School of Biosciences University of Sheffield Sheffield UK.
Ecol Evol. 2024 Feb 5;14(2):e10913. doi: 10.1002/ece3.10913. eCollection 2024 Feb.
All animals and plants respond to changes in the environment during their life cycle. This flexibility is known as phenotypic plasticity and allows organisms to cope with variable environments. A common source of environmental variation is predation risk, which describes the likelihood of being attacked and killed by a predator. Some species can respond to the level of predation risk by producing morphological defences against predation. A classic example is the production of so-called 'neckteeth' in the water flea, , which defend against predation from midge larvae. Previous studies of this defence have focussed on changes in pedestal size and the number of spikes along a gradient of predation risk. Although these studies have provided a model for continuous phenotypic plasticity, they do not capture the whole-organism shape response to predation risk. In contrast, studies in fish and amphibians focus on shape as a complex, multi-faceted trait made up of different variables. In this study, we analyse how multiple aspects of shape change in along a gradient of predation risk from . These changes are dominated by the neckteeth defence, but there are also changes in the size and shape of the head and the body. We detected change in specific modules of the body plan and a level of integration among modules. These results are indicative of a complex, multi-faceted response to predation and provide insight into how predation risk drives variation in shape and size at the level of the whole organism.
所有动植物在其生命周期中都会对环境变化做出反应。这种灵活性被称为表型可塑性，它使生物体能够应对多变的环境。环境变化的一个常见来源是捕食风险，它描述了被捕食者攻击和杀死的可能性。一些物种可以通过产生抵御捕食的形态防御来应对捕食风险水平。一个经典的例子是水蚤产生所谓的“颈齿”，以抵御蠓幼虫的捕食。此前对这种防御的研究主要集中在沿着捕食风险梯度的基座大小和刺的数量变化上。尽管这些研究提供了一个连续表型可塑性的模型，但它们没有捕捉到生物体整体形状对捕食风险的反应。相比之下，对鱼类和两栖动物的研究则将形状视为一个由不同变量组成的复杂、多方面的特征。在本研究中，我们分析了水蚤沿着从低到高的捕食风险梯度，其形状的多个方面是如何变化的。这些变化主要由颈齿防御主导，但头部和身体的大小及形状也有变化。我们检测到了身体结构特定模块的变化以及模块之间的整合程度。这些结果表明对捕食存在复杂、多方面的反应，并为捕食风险如何在整个生物体水平上驱动形状和大小的变化提供了见解。
