New research shows that the body shape and survival of fish's offspring can be affected by the water flow.
The study found that the survival of fish born from parents living in high water flow was half as good as fish born from parents living in low water flow.
A study looked at a fish from a wild population. When offspring of fish living under high water flow left to find their own home, they had different fin shapes, but slower growth.
The environments of parents and their offspring are not the same when it comes to animals. In the marine realm, most fish have two parts to their life-cycle: an early stage as offspring, where young fish can dispersal long distances in open water before choosing a suitable environment in which to develop and grow, and a less mobile adult stage.
Before they become adults themselves, offspring may experience different conditions to those of their parents. This latest research helps to explain which traits are inherited from their parents, and which traits may be caused by environmental factors such as water flow, which separates the effects of water flow experienced by parents and the water flow experienced during development.
A researcher at the University of Glasgow and a PhD student at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes said that water flow varies between sites. There are differences in the shape, size and dimensions of fish's fins and body, as well as in their swimming ability and metabolism, to cope with the different water flows.
We don't know if the trait differences come from their parents' genes, the environment in which their parents live, or the water flow in which their offspring develop.
The water flow environments of both the parents and offspring have been shown to affect fin shape.
The findings suggest consequences of living in different environments with likely compromises between parents and offspring trait and survival in wild populations.
There are adaptive effects of parental and development environments on offspring. The DOI is 10.1111/1365 2435.14 202.
Journal information: Functional Ecology
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