Early Life History Traits and Elevated Growth Trajectories Associated with Survival into Winter in Range-Expanding Coral Reef Fish.

Early Life History Traits and Elevated Growth Trajectories Associated with Survival into Winter in Range-Expanding Coral Reef Fish. | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Early Life History Traits and Elevated Growth Trajectories Associated with Survival into Winter in Range-Expanding Coral Reef Fish. Alexander Rigg, Ashley M Fowler, Brigitte Sommer, David J Booth This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5435695/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 01 Apr, 2025 Read the published version in Marine Biology → Version 1 posted 5 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Climate change is driving the poleward range expansion of sub-tropical and tropical marine species into temperate ecosystems, with ocean-warming hotspots experiencing rapid shifts in species distributions. While recruitment to temperate waters by expatriating tropical vagrant fish is increasing, surviving through the cooler winters remains a significant barrier to their establishment. This study investigates the links between early life history traits and survival into winter in the Sergeant Major (Abudefduf vaigiensis), a tropical damselfish expanding its range into temperate southeastern Australia. Using otolith microstructure analysis, we reconstructed the early life histories of 122 individuals collected from rocky reef in Sydney (33.8oS) Australia in 2022 and 2023 and assessed their early life history traits. Our results demonstrate that individuals surviving into the winter (hereafter “wintered fish”) had a larger size at hatching, longer pelagic larval duration, and higher body condition than fish collected before winter. Lower settlement water temperatures were positively associated with winter survival, indicating that a settlement date closer to the onset of winter was favourable. Additionally, wintered fish, exhibited higher growth rates in early life compared to fish sampled prior to winter onset. These findings suggest that some early life history traits are selected for survival into winter, potentially mediating the physiological impacts of declining water temperature. If such traits increase overwinter survival they may facilitate the establishment of this range-expanding species in temperate rocky reef environments. Climate Change Early Life History Growth Rates Otolith Analysis Overwintering Range Expansion Tropical Fish Full Text Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 01 Apr, 2025 Read the published version in Marine Biology → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revise and Resubmit 16 Jan, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 17 Nov, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 13 Nov, 2024 Editor assigned by journal 12 Nov, 2024 First submitted to journal 11 Nov, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5435695","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":377872371,"identity":"2550116b-0612-4795-8063-29aeffc755b8","order_by":0,"name":"Alexander Rigg","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2346-7036","institution":"University of Technology Sydney","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Alexander","middleName":"","lastName":"Rigg","suffix":""},{"id":377872372,"identity":"5ba7a9c9-7f32-4d9d-86c3-ce4a763d4c7b","order_by":1,"name":"Ashley M Fowler","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"New South Wales Department of Primary Industries","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ashley","middleName":"M","lastName":"Fowler","suffix":""},{"id":377872373,"identity":"268e0bac-69d6-4f00-a20e-d73044f290df","order_by":2,"name":"Brigitte Sommer","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"The University of Sydney","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Brigitte","middleName":"","lastName":"Sommer","suffix":""},{"id":377872374,"identity":"d5730bcb-fde9-49d4-9c5c-db632689c085","order_by":3,"name":"David J Booth","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Technology Sydney","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"David","middleName":"J","lastName":"Booth","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-11-12 03:18:50","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5435695/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5435695/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-025-04626-3","type":"published","date":"2025-04-01T15:57:33+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":80082049,"identity":"2d8b921c-f85c-4a17-a7f5-2cf2dae267b1","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-07 16:06:15","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":877421,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"RiggFowlerSommerBooth2024.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5435695/v1_covered_eb5fd83a-f7cc-4669-bfe4-82bc62cc97a2.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"Early Life History Traits and Elevated Growth Trajectories Associated with Survival into Winter in Range-Expanding Coral Reef Fish.","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":true,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"marine-biology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"mabi","sideBox":"Learn more about [Marine Biology](https://www.springer.com/journal/227)","snPcode":"227","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/227/3","title":"Marine Biology","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Climate Change, Early Life History, Growth Rates, Otolith Analysis, Overwintering, Range Expansion, Tropical Fish","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5435695/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5435695/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Climate change is driving the poleward range expansion of sub-tropical and tropical marine species into temperate ecosystems, with ocean-warming hotspots experiencing rapid shifts in species distributions. 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