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Published on: September 16, 2015
Coping with environmental uncertainty: dynamic bet hedging as a maternal effect.
Angela J Crean1, Dustin J Marshall
1School of Integrative Biology, University of Queensland, 4072 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. a.crean@uq.edu.au
Summary
Mothers may increase offspring size variation when facing unpredictable environments, a strategy called dynamic bet hedging. This research provides evidence supporting this adaptive maternal effect, suggesting it
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Maternal Effects
- Behavioral Ecology
Background:
- Maternal manipulation of offspring phenotype is common for maximizing maternal fitness.
- Most research focuses on changes in the mean offspring phenotype, assuming predictable environments.
- Unpredictable environments may favor mothers increasing within-offspring trait variation (bet-hedging).
Purpose of the Study:
- To empirically test if mothers adaptively adjust offspring trait variance (dynamic bet-hedging) in response to environmental unpredictability.
- To investigate maternal effects on both the mean and variance of offspring traits.
Main Methods:
- Reanalysis of five previously published studies across diverse taxa.
- Studies involved manipulation of the maternal environment or phenotype.
- Examination of changes in mean offspring size as a proxy for phenotypic manipulation.
Main Results:
- Found support for the theory that mothers increase within-clutch offspring size variation under unpredictable conditions.
- Evidence suggests mothers can adaptively adjust offspring trait variance.
Conclusions:
- Dynamic bet-hedging, or adaptive adjustment of offspring trait variance by mothers, appears to be a more common phenomenon than previously thought.
- Future research should consider both mean and variance of offspring traits when studying maternal effects.
- Understanding dynamic bet-hedging has implications for evolutionary and ecological studies.
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