Plasticity, the capacity of individuals to respond to changing environments by modifying traits, may be critically important for population persistence by allowing for adaptive responses on shorter timescales than genetic change. Here, we use the clown anemonefish Amphiprion percula, whose access to resources is constrained by their anemones, to test the role of plasticity in generating variation in reproductive success among groups. We surveyed a wild clownfish population and found positive correlations between anemone area, fish size, reproduction and parental care. We used structural equation modeling to test the hypothesis that these correlations emanate from variation in anemone area and found support for a pathway linking anemone area to female investment, female investment to male investment and male investment to embryo survival. Next, we experimentally tested whether plasticity in response to resource availability can result in variation in parental traits using a feeding manipulation and found substantial plasticity in reproduction and parental care in response to changes in the availability of food resources. The results of this study reveal the role of plasticity in response to local resource availability in generating variation among individuals in reproductive strategies, linking studies of behavior and demography in this model species, and ultimately contributing to our ability to predict how populations might cope with environmental changes.

中文翻译：

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应对野生小丑鱼种群中的当地资源，生殖和父母照顾具有可塑性

可塑性，即个体通过改变性状对变化的环境做出反应的能力，通过允许在比基因变化更短的时间尺度上做出适应性反应，对于种群持久性可能至关重要。在这里，我们使用小丑海葵鱼Amphiprion percula，其对资源的访问受到其海葵的限制，以测试可塑性在产生群体间生殖成功变异中的作用。我们调查了野生小丑鱼种群，发现海葵面积，鱼的大小，繁殖和父母关怀之间呈正相关。我们使用结构方程模型来检验这些相关性源自海葵面积变化的假设，并发现了将海葵面积与女性投资，女性投资与男性投资以及男性投资与胚胎存活联系起来的途径的支持。接下来，我们通过实验测试了是否可塑性响应于资源的可利用性而通过喂食操作导致父母性状的变化，并发现可再生性和父母对照料能力的可塑性响应食物资源的可利用性的显着可塑性。