Corticosterone manipulation reveals differences in hierarchical organization of multidimensional reproductive trade-offs in r-strategist and K-strategist females

Life history trade-offs are often hierarchical with decisions at one level affecting lower level trade-offs. We investigated trade-off structure in female side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana), which exhibit two evolved strategies: yellow-throated females are K-strategists and orange-throated are...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of evolutionary biology Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 556 - 565
Main Authors:	LANCASTER, L.T, HAZARD, L.C, CLOBERT, J, SINERVO, B.R
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford, UK Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-03-2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects:	Animal reproduction Animals Body Size - physiology Clutch Size - physiology Corticosterone - physiology endocrine hormones Evolutionary biology Female Females Hierarchies income vs. capital breeding life history strategy Lizards - anatomy & histology Lizards - physiology offspring quantity vs. quality Oviparity - physiology Ovum - cytology Pigmentation - physiology polymorphism predation vs. foraging r- vs. K-selection Random Allocation reptile reptiles Reptiles & amphibians Stress Stress, Physiological - physiopathology Survival Analysis survival vs. reproduction Time Factors
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Summary:	Life history trade-offs are often hierarchical with decisions at one level affecting lower level trade-offs. We investigated trade-off structure in female side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana), which exhibit two evolved strategies: yellow-throated females are K-strategists and orange-throated are r-strategists. Corticosterone treatment was predicted to differentially organize these females' reproductive decisions. Corticosterone-treated yellow females suppressed reproduction but survived well, and augmented egg mass without decreasing clutch size. Conversely, corticosterone enhanced mortality and reproductive rates in orange females, and increased egg mass only after lengthy exposure. Corticosterone did not affect post-laying condition, suggesting that corticosterone increased egg mass through enhanced energy acquisition (income breeding). Corticosterone enhanced survival of lightweight females, but decreased survival of heavy females, introducing a foraging vs. predation trade-off. We conclude that rather than being a direct, functional relationship, observed trade-offs between offspring size and number represent evolved differences in hierarchical organization of multidimensional trade-offs, particularly in response to stress.
Bibliography:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2007.01478.x ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1010-061X 1420-9101
DOI:	10.1111/j.1420-9101.2007.01478.x