Affiliation:
1. Independent Scholar, Saint Petersburg 199034, Russia
Abstract
This study addresses the problem of concordance in fluctuating asymmetry (FA) across traits by analyzing the relationship between FAs and the mean values of character measurements in a set of morphological traits. Regression slopes vary in natural populations, thus, revealing discordance in FA across traits among these populations. Hence, commonly accepted techniques for measuring developmental instability with FA result in uncertainties. Here, I relate FA to mean as a two-dimensional complex to demonstrate the uniformly negative slopes of standardized FA vs. mean value regressions for sets of morphological traits from eighteen distinct natural marine and aquatic populations. Comprehensive analysis of the FA–mean complex cannot be recommended for wide use in assessing stress and fitness, but it offers promise to improve FA measuring methodologies and to better understand the nature of developmental instability.
Subject
Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous),General Mathematics,Chemistry (miscellaneous),Computer Science (miscellaneous)
Reference68 articles.
1. Fluctuating asymmetry: Measurement, analysis, patterns;Palmer;Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst.,1986
2. Future prospects for population phenogenetics;Zakharov;Sov. Sci. Rev. Sect. F Physiol. Gen. Bio. Rev.,1989
3. Fluctuating asymmetry: An epigenetic measure of stress;Parsons;Biol. Rev.,1990
4. Developmental stability and its applications in ecotoxicology;Graham;Ecotoxicology,1993
5. Fluctuating asymmetry as an indicator of stress and fitness in stickleback: Analysis of publications and testing cranial structures;Lajus;Evol. Ecol. Res.,2019