scholarly journals Lifelong divergence of growth patterns in Arctic charr life history strategies: implications for sustainable fisheries in a changing climate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Grenier ◽  
Ross F. Tallman

Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus Linneaus, 1758) are phenotypically variable with multiple life history strategies including anadromous and freshwater resident individuals. The mechanism determining life history is believed to be set early in life. Anadromous individuals show greater seasonality in growth and feeding after the first seaward migration relative to resident conspecifics. We used otolith growth increment measurements to estimate lifelong growth patterns for 355 individuals with anadromous or resident life history from four populations within Cumberland Sound, Nunavut. Using a general and a generalized linear model, we discovered a linear increase (estimate = 0.006) in growth for both Arctic charr life histories between 1990 and 2016. Resident Arctic charr have lower annual growth (estimate = -0.176) and show a decrease in the annual proportion of summer growth as they age (estimate = -0.042) while their anadromous counterparts maintain a higher seasonality in their growth patterns with age. This suggests that growth is indeed important in life history trajectory for Arctic charr and that seasonal growth patterns differ among life histories. The results highlight the importance of improving our understanding of mechanisms influencing life history trajectory in Arctic charr to ensure sustainability of harvested Arctic charr populations in a changing climate.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Grenier ◽  
Aslak Smalås ◽  
Runar Kjær ◽  
Rune Knudsen

Sympatric Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus (L. 1758), morphs have flexible but repeated life history strategies tested across five Norwegian lakes. In several Scandinavian polymorphic Arctic charr populations differentiated by their diet and habitat use, a large littoral omnivorous (LO) morph commonly cooccurs with a smaller profundal spawning (PB/PZ) morph. A third, large piscivorous (PP) morph is also known to occur within a portion of Arctic charr populations in the profundal habitat along with the PB/PZ individuals. Life history traits, such as age at maturity, growth, and diet are known to differ among coexisting morphs. Notably, the PP morph was the longest morph with the oldest age at maturity while the PB/PZ morph showed the shortest lengths overall and youngest age with LO morph being intermediate in both traits. Growth parameters differed across all the morphs. When examining growth within morph groups, the LO morph was found to have different growth across all lakes, while similar reproductive investments and different energy acquisition patterns were seen within the PB/PZ and PP morphs. These results suggest repeat evolution in several life history strategies of reproductively isolated Arctic charr sympatric morphs, notably for the first time in the PP morph, while also highlighting the importance of the local environment in modulating life history traits.


mBio ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiwei Luo ◽  
Miklós Csűros ◽  
Austin L. Hughes ◽  
Mary Ann Moran

ABSTRACT Marine bacteria in the Roseobacter and SAR11 lineages successfully exploit the ocean habitat, together accounting for ~40% of bacteria in surface waters, yet have divergent life histories that exemplify patch-adapted versus free-living ecological roles. Here, we use a phylogenetic birth-and-death model to understand how genome content supporting different life history strategies evolved in these related alphaproteobacterial taxa, showing that the streamlined genomes of free-living SAR11 were gradually downsized from a common ancestral genome only slightly larger than the extant members (~2,000 genes), while the larger and variably sized genomes of roseobacters evolved along dynamic pathways from a sizeable common ancestor (~8,000 genes). Genome changes in the SAR11 lineage occurred gradually over ~800 million years, whereas Roseobacter genomes underwent more substantial modifications, including major periods of expansion, over ~260 million years. The timing of the first Roseobacter genome expansion was coincident with the predicted radiation of modern marine eukaryotic phytoplankton of sufficient size to create nutrient-enriched microzones and is consistent with present-day ecological associations between these microbial groups. We suggest that diversification of red-lineage phytoplankton is an important driver of divergent life history strategies among the heterotrophic bacterioplankton taxa that dominate the present-day ocean. IMPORTANCE One-half of global primary production occurs in the oceans, and more than half of this is processed by heterotrophic bacterioplankton through the marine microbial food web. The diversity of life history strategies that characterize different bacterioplankton taxa is an important subject, since the locations and mechanisms whereby bacteria interact with seawater organic matter has effects on microbial growth rates, metabolic pathways, and growth efficiencies, and these in turn affect rates of carbon mineralization to the atmosphere and sequestration into the deep sea. Understanding the evolutionary origins of the ecological strategies that underlie biochemical interactions of bacteria with the ocean system, and which scale up to affect globally important biogeochemical processes, will improve understanding of how microbial diversity is maintained and enable useful predictions about microbial response in the future ocean.


1992 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 2196-2218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirk O. Winemiller ◽  
Kenneth A. Rose

Interspecific patterns of fish life histories were evaluated in relation to several theoretical models of life-history evolution. Data were gathered for 216 North American fish species (57 families) to explore relationships among variables and to ordinate species. Multivariate tests, performed on freshwater, marine, and combined data matrices, repeatedly identified a gradient associating later-maturing fishes with higher fecundity, small eggs, and few bouts of reproduction during a short spawning season and the opposite suite of traits with small fishes. A second strong gradient indicated positive associations between parental care, egg size, and extended breeding seasons. Phylogeny affected each variable, and some higher taxonomic groupings were associated with particular life-history strategies. High-fecundity characteristics tended to be associated with large species ranges in the marine environment. Age at maturation, adult growth rate, life span, and egg size positively correlated with anadromy. Parental care was inversely correlated with median latitude. A trilateral continuum based on essential trade-offs among three demographic variables predicts many of the correlations among life-history traits. This framework has implications for predicting population responses to diverse natural and anthropogenic disturbances and provides a basis for comparing responses of different species to the same disturbance.


Ecoscience ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross F. Tallman ◽  
Fernand Saurette ◽  
Trevor Thera

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