10.5061/DRYAD.432VJ5J
Tóth, Zoltán
Plant Protection Institute
Hettyey, Attila
Plant Protection Institute
Data from: Egg-laying environment modulates offspring responses to
predation risk in an amphibian
Dryad
dataset
2018
antipredator response
maternal effects
developmental plasticity
locomotor activity
hatching time
2018-02-21T17:32:34Z
2018-02-21T17:32:34Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13258
73244 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Predator-induced plasticity has been in the focus of evolutionary
ecological research in the last decades, but the consequences of temporal
variation in the presence of cues predicting offspring environment have
remained controversial. This is partly due to the fact that the role of
early environmental effects has scarcely been scrutinized in this context
while also controlling for potential maternal effects. In this study we
investigated how past environmental conditions, i.e. different
combinations of risky or safe adult (pre-natal) and oviposition (early
post-natal) environments affected offspring’s plastic responses in
hatching time and locomotor activity to predation risk during development
in the smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris). We found that females did not
adjust their reproductive investment to the perceived level of risk in the
adult environment, and this pre-natal environment had generally negligible
effect on offspring phenotype. However, when predator cues were absent
during oviposition, larvae raised in the presence of predator cues delayed
their hatching and exhibited a decreased activity compared to control
larvae developing without predator cues, which responses are advantageous
when predators pose a threat to hatched larvae. In the presence of
predator cues during oviposition, the difference in hatching time
persisted,but the difference in general locomotor activity disappeared
between risk-exposed and control larvae. Our findings provide clear
experimental evidence that fine-scale temporal variation in a predictive
cue during and after egg-laying interactively affect offspring phenotype,
and highlight the importance of the early post-natal environment, which
may exert a substantial influence on progeny’s phenotype also under
natural conditions.
DATA_Toth&HettyeyData collected during the conducted experiment
and used in the statistical analyses. Data file was created in MS Excel.
In the column headings, "Env" is an abbreviation of
"environment", whereas "SVL" denotes females'
snout-to-vent length.