Background risk during development and early life does not affect later activity and risk-taking across genetically distinct lineages of the mangrove rivulus

Early exposure to cues associated with a high-risk environment can signal the background predation risk and if these cues alter development, they might give individuals a head-start in preparing for a dangerous environment later on. Here we examined how early cues of predation risk (i.e. embryo alarm cues) experienced either as embryos or as newly hatched fry affect response to a novel environment and a stressful disturbance in the self-fertilizing hermaphroditic mangrove rivulus (Kryptolebias marmoratus).

Due to many generations of selfing, mangrove rivulus produce genetically identical offspring resulting in distinct genetic lineages, thus we could also examine whether genotypes vary in their developmental plasticity in response to risk. Although all individuals decreased their activity and risk-taking in response to a stressful disturbance, we found that early exposure to alarm cues, whether as an embryo or early hatched fry, did not affect this response.