Human influence on brown trout juvenile body size during metapopulation expansion.

ABSTRACT: Change in body size can be driven by social (density) and non-social (environmental and spatial variation) factors. In expanding metapopulations, spatial sorting by means of dispersal on the expansion front can further drive the evolution of body size. However, human intervention can dramatically affect these founder effects. Using long-term monitoring of the colonization of the remote Kerguelen islands by brown trout, a facultative anadromous salmonid, we analyse body size variation in 32 naturally founded and 10 human-introduced populations over 57 years. In naturally founded populations, we find that spatial sorting promotes slow positive changes in body size on the expansion front, then that body size decreases as populations get older and local density increases. This pattern is, howe

SUBMITTER: Aulus-Giacosa L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8548077 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature