Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Experimental Tests of Sex Allocation Theory with Two Species of Simultaneously Hermaphroditic Acorn Barnacles

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Evolution

ISSN

0014-3820

Publication Date

5-2012

Keywords

Balanus glandula, Cirripedia, Reproduction, Semibalanus balanoides, Trade-offs

Abstract

Sex allocation theory for simultaneous hermaphrodites predicts increases in relative allocation to male-specific function as competition for fertilizations increases. Theoretical models developed specifically for competing acorn barnacles predict that the proportional allocation to male function increases toward an asymptote of 50% as the number of competitors for fertilizations increases. Experimental manipulations were used to investigate how mate competition affected both relative and absolute allocation to the sex functions for two species of acorn barnacle: Semibalanus balanoides and Balanus glandula. The ratio of male to female allocation did not increase with the number of competitors for either species. However, both species showed increased allocation to male function (estimated as total mass of sex-specific tissues) with increased crowding. Allocation to female function seemed to be limited by other factors and did not vary with mating group size as predicted. Allocation to male and female function were both positively related to body size, but a trade-off between male and female function, a key assumption of prior models, was not observed.

DOI

10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01548.x

Volume

66

Issue

5

First Page

1332

Last Page

1343

Comments

©2012 The Author(s). Evolution ©2012 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

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