Journal article
Complex consequences of increased density for reproductive output in an invasive freshwater snail
Evolutionary ecology, Vol.27(6), pp.1117-1127
02/15/2013
DOI: 10.1007/s10682-013-9632-4
Abstract
Population density can have profound, often negative effects on fitness-related traits and population dynamics, and density dependence is of central importance to many prominent ecological and evolutionary hypotheses. Here, we used experimental manipulations of food, population density, and water conditioning to characterize the mechanisms underlying reproductive density-dependence in
Potamopyrgus antipodarum
. This New Zealand freshwater snail is a prominent model system for invasion biology, ecotoxicology, and the maintenance of sexual reproduction. We demonstrated that a primary source of negative density-dependence is food limitation, but surprisingly, we found that
P. antipodarum
reproductive output was much higher in high density versus low-density conditions when food was adequate. We then used manipulations of water environment to demonstrate that these positive effects of high density are likely caused by a waterborne substance produced by
P. antipodarum
. Altogether, these results indicate that there are strong and complex connections between food availability, density, and reproductive output in this important model system that could influence the dynamics of invasive populations, the costs and benefits of sex, and the approaches used for ecotoxicology studies.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Complex consequences of increased density for reproductive output in an invasive freshwater snail
- Creators
- Maurine Neiman - Department of Biology, University of IowaDonald Warren - Department of Biology, University of IowaBryce Rasmussen - Department of Biology, University of IowaSylvia Zhang - Department of Biology, University of Iowa, Yale University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Evolutionary ecology, Vol.27(6), pp.1117-1127
- Publisher
- Springer Netherlands
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10682-013-9632-4
- ISSN
- 0269-7653
- eISSN
- 1573-8477
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 02/15/2013
- Academic Unit
- Office Of The Provost; Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies; Biology
- Record Identifier
- 9984217428702771
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