scholarly journals Within-shoal phenotypic homogeneity affects shoaling preference in a killifish

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 20180293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Cattelan ◽  
Matteo Griggio

Anti-predator benefits associated with living in groups are multiple and taxonomically widespread. In fish shoals, individuals can exploit the confusion effect, whereby predators struggle to target a single individual among several individuals. Theory predicts that the confusion effect could be aided by homogeneity in appearance; thus, individuals should group by phenotypic characteristics, contributing to generating high within-shoal phenotypic homogeneity. While assortments by body size have been extensively documented, almost nothing is known about whether within-shoal homogeneity in body pigmentation affects shoaling preference. To investigate this issue, we used the Mediterranean killifish, Aphanius fasciatus , a shoaling species characterized by conspicuous vertical bars on body sides. Individual females were given a choice between two novel shoals characterized by either a high or low degree of homogeneity in the number of bars. As predicted, individual females preferentially associated with the shoal showing the higher phenotypic homogeneity. Our data demonstrated that fish might associate with the shoal that maximizes phenotypic homogeneity in body pigmentation, irrespective of their own phenotype.

1991 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 13-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. P. Zervas ◽  
J. Hatziminaoglou ◽  
J. Boyazoglu ◽  
A. Georgoudis

SUMMARYExaminded are some of the most important dairy sheep breeds, among the great diversity of the Mediterranean sheep population, by focusing on their phenotypic characteristics, their productive and reproductive potential as well as on the management practices and systems of testing. Information is also given on their genetic parameters, with emphasis on heritability coefficients, and the range of respective selection and breeding schemes, applied under their particular husbandry conditions.


2010 ◽  
Vol 70 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 327-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaouthar Kessabi ◽  
Anna Navarro ◽  
Marta Casado ◽  
Khaled Saïd ◽  
Imed Messaoudi ◽  
...  

2004 ◽  
Vol 313 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Chomsky ◽  
Y. Kamenir ◽  
M. Hyams ◽  
Z. Dubinsky ◽  
N.E. Chadwick-Furman

2017 ◽  
pp. 517 ◽  
Author(s):  
TUBA TERBIYIK KURT ◽  
SEVIM POLAT

Pleopis schmackeri, a podonid cladoceran not previously recorded in the Mediterranean Sea, was found in the İskenderun Bay for the first time. The samples were collected seasonally during 2012–2015 in the coastal area of İskenderun Bay using a WP-2 zooplankton net (200 µm). Six cladoceran species were found in total, and Penilia avirostris, Pseudevadne tergestina and Evadne spinifera constituted the bulk of the population, while the contribution of P. schmackeri was very low. Although only a single individual was observed in July 2012, the abundance and frequency of P. schmackeri increased in the following years, attaining the abundance of 25.10 ind.m-3 in 2015. Thus, P. schmackeri could be considered as established in İskenderun Bay; however, it seems that it did not affect the distribution of other cladoceran species in the area up to now. P. schmackeri could have entered in İskenderun Bay either as Lessepsian migrant or by ballast waters of commercial ships.


2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1860) ◽  
pp. 20170357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafał Nawrot ◽  
Paolo G. Albano ◽  
Devapriya Chattopadhyay ◽  
Martin Zuschin

Body size is a synthetic functional trait determining many key ecosystem properties. Reduction in average body size has been suggested as one of the universal responses to global warming in aquatic ecosystems. Climate change, however, coincides with human-enhanced dispersal of alien species and can facilitate their establishment. We address effects of species introductions on the size structure of recipient communities using data on Red Sea bivalves entering the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal. We show that the invasion leads to increase in median body size of the Mediterranean assemblage. Alien species are significantly larger than native Mediterranean bivalves, even though they represent a random subset of the Red Sea species with respect to body size. The observed patterns result primarily from the differences in the taxonomic composition and body-size distributions of the source and recipient species pools. In contrast to the expectations based on the general temperature–size relationships in marine ectotherms, continued warming of the Mediterranean Sea indirectly leads to an increase in the proportion of large-bodied species in bivalve assemblages by accelerating the entry and spread of tropical aliens. These results underscore complex interactions between changing climate and species invasions in driving functional shifts in marine ecosystems.


2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiane C. F. da Silva ◽  
Sara Lívia S. Fernandes da Matta ◽  
Alexandre W. S Hilsdorf ◽  
Francisco Langeani ◽  
Alexandre P Marceniuk

Color pattern is recognized as an important characteristic for diagnosing Trichomycterus species and for elucidating their relationships. An analysis based on morphological and molecular data confirms the existence of a single species of Trichomycterus in the rio Itatinga, a costal river drainage on the escarpment of the Serra do Mar and the rio Claro on the upper course of the rio Tietê. The only species found, Trichomycterus iheringi, shows two clearly distinct patterns of body pigmentation and intermediate color patterns related to body size and microhabitat preference.


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