Paplauskas, S. orcid.org/0000-0003-0303-0929, Morton, O. orcid.org/0000-0001-5483-4498, Hunt, M. et al. (6 more authors) (2024) Predator‐induced shape plasticity in Daphnia pulex. Ecology and Evolution, 14 (2). e10913. ISSN 2045-7758
Abstract
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, <jats:italic>Daphnia pulex</jats:italic>, which defend against predation from <jats:italic>Chaoborus</jats:italic> 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 <jats:italic>D. pulex</jats:italic> along a gradient of predation risk from <jats:italic>Chaoborus flavicans</jats:italic>. 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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | defence; geometric morphometrics; integration; modularity; phenotypic plasticity; predation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 12 Feb 2024 11:02 |
Last Modified: | 12 Feb 2024 11:02 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10913 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/ece3.10913 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:209058 |