Summary
The settling behaviour of larvae of Spirorbis borealis from several ecologically contrasting environments was analysed in terms of means and genetic variances (the latter expressed as heritability) of two components—the probability of settling when presented with a particular substrate, and the gregarious behaviour of the larvae. Larval behaviour differed markedly according to the population from which they came: animals from a sheltered tidepool prefer Ascophyllum, and are distinctly gregarious, while those from a semi-exposed embayment settle much more readily on Fucus and are not as gregarious. Animals collected from an environmental cline ranging in conditions from tidepool-like to embayment-like exhibit a corresponding range in behaviour. This interpopulation variation in character means is interpretable in terms of adaptation to differential selection pressures known to be acting on the populations; consideration of intra-population genetic variances gives an indication of the mechanism of the adaptation.
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Mackay, T., Doyle, R. An ecological genetic analysis of the settling behaviour of a marine polychaete:. Heredity 40, 1–12 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1978.1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1978.1
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