Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Hatch success and temperature-dependent development time in two broadly distributed topminnows (Fundulidae)

  • Short Communication
  • Published:
Naturwissenschaften Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Metabolic scaling laws predict a variety of emergent properties of biological systems based on relationships among temperature, body size, and rates of physiological processes. These models have been criticized as being overly simplistic and not accounting for directional variability arising from evolutionary tradeoffs. I measured hatch success and egg development time at six temperatures for 12 populations throughout the latitudinal range of two broadly distributed topminnows (Fundulus). I asked if hatch success and development time differed between the species and northern and southern populations. Hatch success reaction norms suggested that the more broadly (and northern) distributed Fundulus notatus was more eurythermic with a lower optima and broader performance breadth than Fundulus olivaceus. Temperature explained most variability in mass-corrected development time. Development time differed between the species, but not northern and southern populations. Deviations from predictions of universal scaling laws were most pronounced away from specie's thermal optima.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

References

  • Angilletta MJ (2009) Thermal adaptation: a theoretical and empirical synthesis. Oxford University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonebrake TC, Mastrandrea MD (2010) Tolerance adaptation and precipitation changes complicate latitudinal patterns of climate change impacts. Proc Natl Acad Sci 107:12581–12586

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brown JH, Gillooly JF, Allen AP, Savage VM, West GB (2004) Toward a metabolic theory of ecology. Ecol 85:1771–1789

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke A (2006) Temperature and the metabolic theory of ecology. Funct Ecol 20:405–412

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke A, Fraser KPP (2004) Why does metabolism scale with temperature? Funct Ecol 18:243–251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deutsch CA, Tewksbury JJ, Huey RB, Sheldon KS, Ghalambor CK, Haak DC, Martin PR (2008) Impacts of climate warming on terrestrial ectotherms across latitude. Proc Natl Acad Sci 105:6668–6672

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Du W, Shine R (2010) Why do the eggs of lizards (Bassiana duperreyi: Scincidae) hatch sooner if incubated at fluctuating rather than constant temperatures? Biol J Linn Soc 101:642–650

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duvernell DD, Schaefer JF, Hancks DC, Fonoti JA, Ravanelli AM (2006) Hybridization and reproductive isolation among syntopic populations of the topminnows Fundulus notatus and F. olivaceus. J Evol Biol 20:152–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer K, Kölzow N, Höltje H, Karl I (2011) Assay conditions in laboratory experiments: is the use of constant rather than fluctuating temperatures justified when investigating temperature-induced plasticity? Oecologia 166:23–33

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gabriel W, Lynch M (1992) The selective advantage of reaction norms for environmental tolerance. J Evol Biol 5:41–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gillooly JF, Dodson SI (2000) The relationship of neonate mass and incubation temperature to embryonic development time in a range of animal taxa. J Zool 251:369–375

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gillooly J, Charnov EL, West GB, Savage VM, Brown JH (2002) Effects of size and temperature on developmental time. Nat 417:70–73

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hicken CE, Linbo TL, Baldwin DH, Willis ML, Myers MS, Holland L, Larsen M, Stekoll MS, Rice SD, Collier TK, Scholz NL, Incardona JP (2011) Sublethal exposure to crude oil during embryonic development alters cardiac morphology and reduces aerobic capacity in adult fish. Proc Natl Acad Sci 108:7086–7090

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kingsolver JG, Ragland GJ, Diamond SE (2009) Evolution in a constant environment: thermal fluctuations and thermal sensitivity of laboratory and field populations of Manduca sexta. Evol 63:537–541

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lardies MA, Bacigalupe LD, Bozinovic F (2004) Testing the metabolic cold adaptation hypothesis: an intraspecific latitudinal comparison in the common woodlouse. Evol Ecol Res 6:567–578

    Google Scholar 

  • López-Olmeda JF, Sánchez-Vázquez FJ (2011) Thermal biology of zebrafish (Danio rerio). J Therm Biol 36:91–104

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris MR, Rios-Cardenas O, Lyons SM, Scarlett Tudor M, Bono LM (2012) Fluctuating asymmetry indicates the optimization of growth rate over developmental stability. Functional Ecology 26(3):723–731. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2435.2012.01983.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pauly D, Pullin RSV (1988) Hatching time in spherical, pelagic, marine fish eggs in response to temperature and egg size. Environ Biol Fish 22:261–271

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pepin P, Orr DC, Anderson JT (1997) Time to hatch and larval size in relation to temperature and egg size in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). Can J Fish Aquat Sci 54:2–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R Development Core Team (2010) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaefer JF, Ryan A (2006) Developmental plasticity in the thermal tolerance of zebrafish (Danio rerio). J Fish Biol 69:722–734

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaefer J, Walters A (2010) Metabolic cold adaptation and developmental plasticity in metabolic rates among species in the Fundulus notatus species complex. Funct Ecol 24:1087–1094

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaefer JF, Duvernell DD, Kreiser BR (2011) Ecological and genetic assessment of spatial structure among replicate contact zones between two topminnow species. Evol Ecol 24:1145–1161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vigueira P, Schaefer JF, Duvernell DD, Kreiser BR (2008) Tests of reproductive isolation among species in the Fundulus notatus (Cyprinodontiformes: Fundulidae) species complex. Evol Ecol 22:55–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West GB, Brown JH, Enquist BJ (1997) A general model for the origin of allometric scaling laws in biology. Sci 276:122–126

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • White CR, Phillips NF, Seymour RS (2006) The scaling and temperature dependence of vertebrate metabolism. Biol Lett 2:125–127

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • White CR, Alton LA, Frappell PB (2011) Metabolic cold adaptation in fishes occurs at the level of whole animal, mitochondria and enzyme. Proc R Soc B Biol Sci 279:1740–1747

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I thank D. Duvernell, N. Franssen, and B. Kreiser for comments on early drafts. K. Kuehn assisted with processing of larval fish. Funding was provided by NSF DEB #0716985.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA

    Jacob Schaefer

Authors
  1. Jacob Schaefer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jacob Schaefer.

Additional information

Communicated by: Sven Thatje

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

(DOC 707 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Schaefer, J. Hatch success and temperature-dependent development time in two broadly distributed topminnows (Fundulidae). Naturwissenschaften 99, 591–595 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-012-0936-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-012-0936-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation