# Plasticity of Dispersal‐Related Larval Traits in the Clown Anemonefish Amphiprion percula

## TL;DR

This study shows that clown anemonefish parents produce larvae with different traits based on food availability, which may affect how far larvae disperse.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates dispersal-related larval trait plasticity in a marine fish in response to parental food conditions.

## Key findings

- Parents produce larger offspring on low-food rations compared to high-food rations.
- Larvae from low-food parents have smaller otolith cores, which may influence dispersal plasticity.
- Parental diet does not affect larval critical swimming speed.

## Abstract

A major goal in marine ecology is to understand patterns of larval dispersal and population connectivity. Dispersal plasticity allows for adaptive variation in dispersal phenotypes in response to variation in environmental conditions and may help to explain intraspecific variation in dispersal distances. However, this phenomenon has only been hypothesized for marine fishes. Here, we test the hypothesis that parents produce larvae with different dispersal‐related traits in response to variation in environmental quality using the orange anemonefish,
Amphiprion percula
. By manipulating food rations in a crossover experimental design, we show that parents produce larger offspring on low‐food rations than on high‐food rations. However, there was no effect of parental diet on larval critical swimming speed. We also show that parents produce larvae with smaller otolith cores while on low‐food rations, which, in combination with parentage analyses, may provide a way to test the dispersal plasticity hypothesis in the field. This study shows that parents can produce different larval phenotypes in response to variation in environmental conditions, demonstrating plasticity in a dispersal‐related larval trait that may help to explain observed variation in
A. percula
larval dispersal distances. Incorporating dispersal plasticity into our understanding of marine dispersal patterns may enhance our understanding of marine metapopulation ecology, fisheries management, and conservation.

In this study, we investigate whether dispersal‐related larval traits are plastic in response to parental habitat quality in a marine fish: the clown anemonefish,
Amphiprion percula. Results from this study show that parents can produce different larval dispersal‐related phenotypes in response to variation in food rations, which may explain some of the observed variation in
A. percula
larval dispersal distances.