Genes Versus Environment: Body Size Variation Among Recruitment Cohorts of Dungeness Crab

Understanding the drivers of phenotypic variation is key to disentangling the evolutionary and environmental forces that shape patterns of trait variation within and among populations. In Dungeness crab, settlement-stage megalopae exhibit striking seasonal variation in body size, with early season cohorts consistently larger than later ones. This pattern may result from genetically distinct larval sources or environmentally induced plasticity following the temperature-size rule, which predicts larger body size at cooler temperatures. Here, we evaluated the relative contributions of these potential drivers by analysing megalopae size, regional sea surface temperatures and whole-genome resequencing data from megalopae collected across the ~5-month settlement season throughout Washington, USA. Genomic analyses revealed a subtle coastal ancestry signal in early-arriving megalopae, supporting the hypothesis that these megalopae are of coastal origin. Coastal ancestry was associated with larger megalopae, even after accounting for temperature; however, temperature was a stronger predictor, with a standardised effect size more than three times greater than that of ancestry. A genome-wide association study found no significant associations with megalopae size, suggesting the absence of a strong genotype-phenotype relationship or a lack of statistical power to detect a highly polygenic trait. Together with prior laboratory rearing studies, our findings support a dominant role for environmentally driven plasticity in body size variation. Persistent cohort differences previously observed in juvenile and adult body size raise the possibility that thermal conditions during early life may promote a carryover effect with potentially significant demographic and fishery implications.