Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 282, Issue 1817, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.1970
Keywords
sexual dimorphism; trophic cascade; mosquitofish; Gambusia; freshwater ecology
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation (NSF-DEB) [1457333, 1457112]
- UC Santa Cruz
- Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station [3442]
- NSF EAPSI Fellowship [1316649]
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1457333] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1457112] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1457333] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Office Of Internatl Science &Engineering
- Office Of The Director [1316649] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Sex ratio and sexual dimorphism have long been of interest in population and evolutionary ecology, but consequences for communities and ecosystems remain untested. Sex ratio could influence ecological conditions whenever sexual dimorphism is associated with ecological dimorphism in species with strong ecological interactions. We tested for ecological implications of sex ratio variation in the sexually dimorphic western mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis. This species causes strong pelagic trophic cascades and exhibits substantial variation in adult sex ratios. We found that female-biased populations induced stronger pelagic trophic cascades compared with male-biased populations, causing larger changes to key community and ecosystem responses, including zooplankton abundance, phytoplankton abundance, productivity, pH and temperature. The magnitude of such effects indicates that sex ratio is important for mediating the ecological role of mosquitofish. Because both sex ratio variation and sexual dimorphism are common features of natural populations, our findings should encourage broader consideration of the ecological significance of sex ratio variation in nature, including the relative contributions of various sexually dimorphic traits to these effects.
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