Novelty versus environment: two viewpoints on the same phenomenon?

0467296 - ÚBO 2017 RIV DK eng J - Journal Article
Janáč, Michal - Konečná, Markéta - Roche, Kevin Francis - Jurajda, Pavel
Novelty versus environment: two viewpoints on the same phenomenon?
Ecology of Freshwater Fish. Roč. 25, č. 4 (2016), s. 678-681. ISSN 0906-6691. E-ISSN 1600-0633
Institutional support: RVO:68081766
Keywords : Neogobius melanostomus * Round goby * formalin
Subject RIV: EG - Zoology
Impact factor: 2.054, year: 2016

There is a general consensus that fish life-history traits (LHT) typically change following a species’ introduction into a novel area,that is that species change to an r-selected LHT early on and shift/return to a K-selected LHT at some later time. In this editorial letter, we question a point in which a theory of ‘alternative ontogenies and invasive potential’ (AOIP) does not consider this description as the typical
‘trajectory’ but as the mechanism behind the trajectory. We believe that LHT are driven solely by biotic and abiotic environmental cues; that is, cues typical for the first years following introduction (e.g. lowered intraspecific pressure) drive r-selected LHT, while those typical for later stages (e.g. increased intraspecific pressure) drive K-selected LHT. While AOIP assumes that the shift in LHT is not driven by environmental cues within a novel environment, but by the shift to a novel environment itself, we believe that novelty per se cannot be enough to change an organism’s LHT and that our results support this.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0265437