Environment not "nativeness" dictates reproductive trait shifts in Ponto-Caspian gobies

0438316 - ÚBO 2017 RIV DK eng J - Journal Article
Konečná, Markéta - Janáč, Michal - Roche, Kevin Francis - Jurajda, Pavel
Environment not "nativeness" dictates reproductive trait shifts in Ponto-Caspian gobies.
Ecology of Freshwater Fish. Roč. 25, č. 1 (2016), s. 167-170. ISSN 0906-6691. E-ISSN 1600-0633
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP505/11/1768
Institutional support: RVO:68081766
Keywords : Pseudorasbora parva * invasive plants * populations * invader * range * goby
Subject RIV: EG - Zoology
Impact factor: 2.054, year: 2016

Comparative studies revealing how species’ traits change after invading new areas are lacking for a number of taxa. This includes Ponto-Caspian gobiid fishes, which have recently invaded a number of temperate Holarctic water systems. We compared the reproductive traits of three gobiid species (round goby Neogobius melanostomus, monkey goby N. fluviatilis, bighead goby N. kessleri) from both native and recently established non-native populations, while controlling for effect of methodology and investigator.
For all three species, non-native populations demonstrated significantly lower fecundity (number of offspring) than native populations. On the other hand, no significant difference was observed in size-at-maturity or presence of batch-spawning. As identical responses were observed in multiple species, this strongly suggests that gobiid reproductive characteristics are influenced primarily by local environmental conditions. Placed in context with present knowledge of native and non-native gobiid reproduction, the results indicate no unambiguous effect of “nativeness” and disprove the theory that recently established non-native populations automatically shift to a more altricial (r-based) strategy.

Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0241738