Abstract
Abstract Many organisms display changes in behaviour and life-history traits when facing variabilities in environmental conditions. A subset of these changes comprises reversible within-individual variations, known as phenotypic flexibility. Using red squat lobster (Pleuroncodes monodon) individuals harvested at the Humboldt Current Ecosystem (HCE), we evaluated how changes in habitat temperatures associated with warm El Niño (EN) conditions and cold La Niña conditions induce phenotypic flexibility in reproductive traits and how this flexibility affects recruitment success. The biological data were obtained from swept area surveys conducted between 2015 and 2020. Remotely sensed sea surface temperature (SST) data were used to compute anomalies (SSTA). Our results showed that females facing warmer environmental conditions carried more eggs with smaller sizes, and under cold conditions, females carried fewer eggs with larger sizes. The recruitments lagged by 1 year correlated positively with the egg density and negatively with the egg size. Our evidence shows that for phenotypic flexibility to be expressed in recruitment success, the warm conditions experienced by females should match good food availability for the planktonic stages. We discussed how climate change predictions for HCE will amplify responses of the reproductive traits of red squat lobster with strong impacts on recruitment likely.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
