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Metabolism is a fundamental attribute of all organisms that influences how species affect and are affected by their natural environment. Differences between sexes in ectothermic species may substantially alter metabolic scaling patterns, particularly in viviparous or live-bearing species where females must support their basal metabolic costs and that of their embryos. Indeed, if pregnancy is associated with marked increases in metabolic demand and alters scaling patterns between sexes, this could in turn interact with natural sex ratio variation in nature to affect population-level energy demand. Here, we aimed to understand how sex and pregnancy influence metabolic scaling and how differences between sexes affect energy demand in Gambusia affinis (Western mosquitofish). Using the same method, we measured routine metabolic rate in the field on reproductively active fish and in the laboratory on virgin fish. Our data suggest that changes in energy expenditure related to pregnancy may lead to steeper scaling coefficients in females (b = 0.750) compared to males (b = 0.595). In contrast, virgin females and males had similar scaling coefficients, suggesting negligible sex differences in metabolic costs in reproductively inactive fish. Further, our data suggest that incorporating sex differences in allometric scaling may alter population-level energy demand by as much as 20–28%, with the most pronounced changes apparent in male-biased populations due to the lower scaling coefficient of males. Overall, our data suggest that differences in energy investment in reproduction between sexes driven by pregnancy may alter allometric scaling and population-level energy demand.

 

Larger animals studied during ontogeny, across populations, or across species, usually have lower mass-specific metabolic rates than smaller animals (hypometric scaling). This pattern is usually observed regardless of physiological state (e.g., basal, resting, field, and maximally active). The scaling of metabolism is usually highly correlated with the scaling of many life-history traits, behaviors, physiological variables, and cellular/molecular properties, making determination of the causation of this pattern challenging. For across-species comparisons of resting and locomoting animals (but less so for across populations or during ontogeny), the mechanisms at the physiological and cellular level are becoming clear. Lower mass-specific metabolic rates of larger species at rest are due to (a) lower contents of expensive tissues (brains, liver, and kidneys), and (b) slower ion leak across membranes at least partially due to membrane composition, with lower ion pump ATPase activities. Lower mass-specific costs of larger species during locomotion are due to lower costs for lower-frequency muscle activity, with slower myosin and Ca++ ATPase activities, and likely more elastic energy storage. The evolutionary explanation(s) for hypometric scaling remain(s) highly controversial. One subset of evolutionary hypotheses relies on constraints on larger animals due to changes in geometry with size; for example, lower surface-to-volume ratios of exchange surfaces may constrain nutrient or heat exchange, or lower cross-sectional areas of muscles and tendons relative to body mass ratios would make larger animals more fragile without compensation. Another subset of hypotheses suggests that hypometric scaling arises from biotic interactions and correlated selection, with larger animals experiencing less selection for mass-specific growth or neurolocomotor performance. An additional third type of explanation comes from population genetics. Larger animals with their lower effective population sizes and subsequent less effective selection relative to drift may have more deleterious mutations, reducing maximal performance and metabolic rates. Resolving the evolutionary explanation for the hypometric scaling of metabolism and associated variables is a major challenge for organismal and evolutionary biology. To aid progress, we identify some variation in terminology use that has impeded cross-field conversations on scaling. We also suggest that promising directions for the field to move forward include (1) studies examining the linkages between ontogenetic, population-level, and cross-species allometries; (2) studies linking scaling to ecological or phylogenetic context; (3) studies that consider multiple, possibly interacting hypotheses; and (4) obtaining better field data for metabolic rates and the life history correlates of metabolic rate such as lifespan, growth rate, and reproduction.

 

Body size is a key functional trait that is predicted to decline under warming. Warming is known to cause size declines via phenotypic plasticity, but evolutionary responses of body size to warming are poorly understood. To test for warming-induced evolutionary responses of body size and growth rates, we used populations of mosquitofish ( Gambusia affinis ) recently established (less than 100 years) from a common source across a strong thermal gradient (19–33°C) created by geothermal springs. Each spring is remarkably stable in temperature and is virtually closed to gene flow from other thermal environments. Field surveys show that with increasing site temperature, body size distributions become smaller and the reproductive advantage of larger body size decreases. After common rearing to reveal recently evolved trait differences, warmer-source populations expressed slowed juvenile growth rates and increased reproductive effort at small sizes. These results are consistent with an adaptive basis of the plastic temperature–size rule, and they suggest that temperature itself can drive the evolution of countergradient variation in growth rates. The rapid evolution of reduced juvenile growth rates and greater reproduction at a small size should contribute to substantial body downsizing in populations, with implications for population dynamics and for ecosystems in a warming world. 

The most widespread and numerous inland fish in the world is likely the mosquitofish (Gambusia affinisandG. holbrooki, Poeciliidae). Much has been written about the basic biology, the current distribution and the negative impacts of non‐native populations of mosquitofish. Here, we instead review the relationship of humanity with mosquitofish. First, we review the early literature on the species and aim to resolve its path towards becoming the globally dominant fish for biological control of mosquitoes. We identify the initial advocates of mosquitofish use, we examine the reasons behind their advocacy, and we document the spread of their viewpoints into and from the globally foundational mosquito control texts. Second, we identify the people and institutions that facilitated early international translocations of mosquitofish, including, among others, David Starr Jordan, the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Red Cross. Third, we discuss the reduction in mosquitofish translocation and use during and after WWII, initially stemming from the discovery and use of other methods, like DDT and later from a recognition of the negative ecological consequences of non‐native mosquitofish populations. Fourth, we propose that the future utility of mosquitofish is largely in its value as a model study organism. We provide an overview of the contributions mosquitofish have made to some major fields in biology. Finally, we suggest that the value of mosquitofish as a model system should increase into the future, behind a momentum of research advances, and as human‐mediated range expansion will permit access to mosquitofish by yet greater numbers of biologists worldwide.

 

The salinization of freshwaters is a global threat to aquatic biodiversity. We quantified variation in chloride (Cl⁻) tolerance of 19 freshwater zooplankton species in four countries to answer three questions: (1) How much variation in Cl⁻tolerance is present among populations? (2) What factors predict intraspecific variation in Cl⁻tolerance? (3) Must we account for intraspecific variation to accurately predict community Cl⁻tolerance? We conducted field mesocosm experiments at 16 sites and compiled acute LC₅₀s from published laboratory studies. We found high variation in LC₅₀s for Cl⁻tolerance in multiple species, which, in the experiment, was only explained by zooplankton community composition. Variation in species‐LC₅₀was high enough that at 45% of lakes, community response was not predictable based on species tolerances measured at other sites. This suggests that water quality guidelines should be based on multiple populations and communities to account for large intraspecific variation in Cl⁻tolerance.