Black Bass Diversity: Multidisciplinary Science for Conservation

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mating System ◽  
Reproductive Behavior ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
First Year ◽  
Effective Number ◽  
Captive Populations ◽  
Effective Number Of Breeders ◽  
Black Bass ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Polygynous Mating System

<em>Abstract</em>.—Attempts to infer mating systems in wild fish populations can be limited by the logistics of locating nests and thoroughly sampling offspring and potential participants. Captive populations are more easily evaluated but may exhibit modified behavior. We used microsatellites (17 loci) to determine parentage among production offspring and infer the mating system of raceway spawning Guadalupe Bass <em>Micropterus treculii</em>, which are part of a supplemental stocking program. Offspring were collected over the course of two production seasons (<em>n </em>= 303 and 492). Spawning activity was nonrandom, with respect to location and time in most compartments, and individuals that spawned were significantly larger, by length and weight, than individuals that did not. During the first year of captivity, significantly fewer males (21 of 60) than females (49 of 61) spawned. Inequalities between the number of nest locations used and the numbers of spawning males and females suggest that males recruited females to spawning sites. While most spawning females (61%) participated with a single mate, most spawning males (90%) participated with multiple females and only 3% of mating pairs were monogamous. This predominantly polygynous mating system contrasts with the primarily monogamous systems of wild congeners and resulted in an effective number of breeders (<em>N<sub>b</sub></em>) less than 30% of the number of penned broodfish. Quarantining particularly prolific males to separate pens during the second year of captivity had little effect on mating behavior, as other males filled their roles. This represents the first documentation of mate choice and fidelity in Guadalupe Bass and provides a template for expected reproductive behavior in a standard hatchery setting. Understanding mating systems, including the effects of captivity on behavior, should enhance restoration efforts, particularly when supplemental stocking programs are involved.

Reproductive behavior

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Olzer ◽  
Rebecca L. Ehrlich ◽  
Justa L. Heinen-Kay ◽  
Jessie Tanner ◽  
Marlene Zuk
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Female Choice ◽  
Reproductive Behavior ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Insect Behavior ◽  
Sequential Approach ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Anatomy And Physiology ◽  
Males And Females

Sex and reproduction lie at the heart of studies of insect behavior. We begin by providing a brief overview of insect anatomy and physiology, followed by an introduction to the overarching themes of parental investment, sexual selection, and mating systems. We then take a sequential approach to illustrate the diversity of phenomena and concepts behind insect reproductive behavior from pre-copulatory mate signalling through copulatory sperm transfer, mating positions, and sexual conflict, to post-copulatory sperm competition, and cryptic female choice. We provide an overview of the evolutionary mechanisms driving reproductive behavior. These events are linked by the economic defendability of mates or resources, and how these are allocated in each sex. Under the framework of economic defendability, the reader can better understand how sexual antagonistic behaviors arise as the result of competing optimal fitness strategies between males and females.

2. Mating systems, or who goes with whom, and for how long

2018 ◽  
pp. 16-33
Author(s):  
Leigh W. Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mating System ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Breeding Season ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Multiple Partners ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Genetic Techniques ◽  
Males And Females

‘Mating systems, or who goes with whom, and for how long’ examines the variation in how males and females associate during the breeding season, ranging from brief couplings with multiple partners to lifelong monogamy. It also shows how the discovery that females mate with many partners, even in supposedly monogamous species such as songbirds, was made possible by modern genetic techniques. Variation in mating systems holds considerable implications for the operation of sexual selection. The way that animal mating systems have been explained historically is outlined before considering how a more contemporary understanding of genetic and social relationships has reshaped our thinking and how understanding a species’ mating system can have practical applications.

scholarly journals Mating system modulates mate selection in aphidophagous ladybird, Menochilus sexmaculatus

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swati Saxena ◽  
Geetanjali Mishra ◽  
Omkar
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Mating System ◽  
Mate Selection ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Multiple Mating ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Egg Viability ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Male Mate ◽  
Selection Of

ABSTRACTMate competition and selection of mates is strongly influenced by the organism’s mating system. Monogamous matings provide more benefits as compared to polygamous matings. However, it has been proven that in polygamous systems, females gain benefits from the males, therefore indulging in multiple mating, leading males to access maximum females. In zigzag ladybird, Menochilus sexmaculatus, mate choice has been studied on several pre-and postcopulatory factors. However, mate choice as a function of mating system is still remains untouched. In the present study, we hypothesised that the mating system modulates mate selection of beetles. Adults were held in different mating systems and then males and females were tested in mate choice trials. Polygynous males were more preferred over monogynous males. However, males preferred monandrous females over polyandrous females. In a second experiment, we also included relatedness as additional factor. In female mate choice trials, females preferred unrelated monogynous males which were earlier rejected over related polygynous and in male mate choice trials, males preferred unrelated polyandrous females over related monandrous females. The results were not confined only to mate choice but significant effect was also observed on time to commence mating, copulation duration, fecundity and percent egg viability.

scholarly journals Estimating the Effective Number of Breeders From Heterozygote Excess in Progeny

Genetics ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 151 (3) ◽  
pp. 1211-1216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Luikart ◽  
Jean-Marie Cornuet
Keyword(s):  
Mating Systems ◽  
Simulated Data ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Effective Number ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Heterozygote Excess ◽  
Accuracy And Precision ◽  
Effective Number Of Breeders ◽  
Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium ◽  
Simulated Data Sets

Abstract The heterozygote-excess method is a recently published method for estimating the effective population size (Ne). It is based on the following principle: When the effective number of breeders (Neb) in a population is small, the allele frequencies will (by chance) be different in males and females, which causes an excess of heterozygotes in the progeny with respect to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium expectations. We evaluate the accuracy and precision of the heterozygote-excess method using empirical and simulated data sets from polygamous, polygynous, and monogamous mating systems and by using realistic sample sizes of individuals (15-120) and loci (5-30) with varying levels of polymorphism. The method gave nearly unbiased estimates of Neb under all three mating systems. However, the confidence intervals on the point estimates of Neb were sufficiently small (and hence the heterozygote-excess method useful) only in polygamous and polygynous populations that were produced by &lt;10 effective breeders, unless samples included &gt; ∼60 individuals and 20 multiallelic loci.

scholarly journals Mating Systems of the Tree-Killing Bark Beetle Polygraphus proximus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae)

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenta Köbayashi ◽  
Etsuro Takagi
Keyword(s):  
Mating System ◽  
Bark Beetle ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Marked Effect ◽  
Mass Mortality ◽  
Natural Setting ◽  
The Past ◽  
Polygraphus Proximus ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Number Of Males

Abstract Polygraphus proximus Blandford (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) has caused mass mortality of fir (Abies spp. (Pinaceae)) forests across large areas of Russia in the past decade. More recently, mass mortality of A. veitchii  Lindl. due to P. proximus infestation has been reported in Japan. This bark beetle species traditionally has been considered to be polygynous because their galleries have multiple gallery arms, and because harem-polygyny is common in the tribe Polygraphini. Although the mating system(s) potentially could have a marked effect on their reproductive success and population dynamics, the reproductive behavior of the tree-killing bark beetle P. proximus has not been investigated in detail in a natural setting in Japan. We, therefore, investigated the number of males and females in a gallery and the number of gallery arms in Abies species in Japan. None of the galleries examined contained more than one male, and 57.2% of the galleries had multiple gallery arms, even though only 2.8% of the galleries contained two females. The findings showed that the typical mating system employed by P. proximus is monogyny and that this species constructs multiple gallery arms in each gallery. In addition, 70.4% of galleries in which the sex of adult beetles could be determined contained no males, and 26.6% contained no females, suggesting that P. proximus males and females re-emerge.

Variation in reproductive success of male and female Columbian ground squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus)

2012 ◽  
Vol 90 (6) ◽  
pp. 736-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip H. Jones ◽  
Jeffrey L. Van Zant ◽  
F. Stephen Dobson
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Mating System ◽  
Multiple Paternity ◽  
Ground Squirrels ◽  
Male Reproductive Success ◽  
Offspring Production ◽  
Bateman Gradient ◽  
Coefficients Of Variation ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Columbian Ground Squirrels

The imbalanced reproductive success of polygynous mammals results in sexual selection on male traits like body size. Males and females might have more balanced reproductive success under polygynandry, where both sexes mate multiply. Using 4 years of microsatellite DNA analyses of paternity and known maternity, we investigated variation in reproductive success of Columbian ground squirrels, Urocitellus columbianus (Ord, 1815); a species with multiple mating by both sexes and multiple paternity of litters. We asked whether male reproductive success was more variable than that of females under this mating system. The overall percentage of confirmed paternity was 61.4% of 339 offspring. The mean rate of multiple paternity in litters with known fathers was 72.4% (n = 29 litters). Estimated mean reproductive success of males (10.27 offspring) was about thrice that of females (3.11 offspring). Even after this difference was taken into account statistically, males were about three times as variable in reproductive success as females (coefficients of variation = 77.84% and 26.74%, respectively). The Bateman gradient (regression slope of offspring production on number of successful mates) was significantly greater for males (βM = 1.44) than females (βF = 0.28). Thus, under a polygynandrous mating system, males exhibited greater variation in reproductive success than females.

Plant mating systems and assessing population persistence in fragmented landscapes

2007 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 239 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Coates ◽  
Jane F. Sampson ◽  
Colin J. Yates
Keyword(s):  
Mating System ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Habitat Disturbance ◽  
Population Persistence ◽  
Population Variation ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Mixed Mating ◽  
Fragmented Landscapes

Population size and habitat disturbance are key factors likely to shape the mating system of populations in disturbed and fragmented landscapes. They would be expected to influence the availability and behaviour of the pollinator, the ability to find mates in self-incompatible species, inbreeding in self-compatible species and the size of the pollen pool. These in turn might be expected to influence key variables critical for population persistence such as seed production, seed germination and seedling fitness. Here we investigate mating-system variation in six rare species, i.e. Banksia cuneata, B. oligantha, Lambertia orbifolia (Proteaceae), Verticordia fimbrilepis subsp. fimbrilepis, Eucalyptus rameliana (Myrtaceae), Acacia sciophanes (Mimosaceae), and two common species, i.e. Calothamnus quadrifidus (Myrtaceae) and Acacia anfractuosa. All seven species are animal-pollinated relatively long-lived woody shrubs with mixed-mating systems. Population variation in mating-system parameters was investigated in relation to population size and habitat disturbance. We show that although the mating system will vary depending on pollination biology and life-history, as populations get smaller and habitat disturbance increases there is a trend towards increased inbreeding, smaller effective sizes of paternal pollen pools and greater variation in outcrossing among plants. From the species investigated in this study we have found that changes in the mating system can be useful indicators of population processes and can give valuable insight into the development of conservation strategies for the persistence of plant species following anthropogenic disturbance and landscape fragmentation.

Effective number of breeders in relation to census size as management tools for Atlantic salmon conservation in a context of stocked populations

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Perrier ◽  
Julien April ◽  
Guillaume Cote ◽  
Louis Bernatchez ◽  
Mélanie Dionne
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Salmon ◽  
Effective Number ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Census Size ◽  
Effective Number Of Breeders

scholarly journals Examining Saudi EFL University Students’ Readiness for Online Learning at the Onset of Covid-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elham Abdullah Ghobain ◽  
Abdullah Ahmed Zughaibi
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
University Students ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
First Year ◽  
English Major ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
First Year University

Nowadays, especially after the COVID-19 crisis lockdown, the heavy reliance on technology and online platforms led to a greater expectation of more learning autonomy among English learners in EFL contexts such as Saudi Arabia. The sudden shift to online learning requires an investigation into students’ readiness and willingness for such a mode of learning. This can provide educators with many prospects about learning outcomes achievement and assessment, test performance, and interaction during classes. Therefore, the current study seeks to contribute to the well-known area of learner autonomy research, which is still lacking in the context of the study, by exploring the readiness of Saudi first-year undergraduate English learners towards online education. Participants’ level of readiness is identified according to their autonomous behaviors and activities. The study will also assess the investigated concept considering the influence of gender and field of study of the participants on their autonomy levels. A total of 802 students participated in this study. It was found that Saudi first-year university students are moderately autonomous, that both males and females have similar levels of aptitude and readiness for taking responsibility for their learning, and that English-major and non-English-major groups showed comparatively similar levels across different learning autonomy dimensions. Yet interestingly, English-major participants displayed a relatively lower autonomy level than students of other majors.

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