Size-associated energetic constraints on the seasonal onset of reproduction in a species with indeterminate growth

The seasonal onset of reproduction is constrained in many systems by a need to first accumulate energetic reserves. Consequently, the observation that larger individuals reproduce earlier may be due to a negative relationship between size and mass-specific basal metabolic rate that is shared across diverse taxa. However, an untested prediction of this hypothesis is that individuals should be metabolically efficient enough to escape energetic constraints above a certain size threshold. Seasonally reproducing species, such as temperate fishes, that must recover winter energy losses before reproduction and exhibit indeterminate growth are ideal models to test this prediction. We harness decade-long behavioral data on parental male smallmouth bass, Micropterus dolomieu, to investigate contributions of energetic allometry to differences in reproductive timing. At the population level, peak seasonal reproductive timing (i.e., the median date on which eggs were found in nests each year) was negatively related to degree days–a measure of thermal energy experienced–before reproduction. At the individual level, degree days accumulated by males before reproduction was related to male size and condition in every year, but the impact of temperature on reproductive timing by the largest males was relaxed in most years. Additionally, we used our data to replicate the analyses of two previous studies of M. dolomieu populations and found virtually identical negative associations between male body size and degree days accumulated before reproduction. Our results suggest that in smallmouth bass the onset of seasonal reproduction is constrained by basal metabolic rate–as indicated by total length–and that large individuals can escape size-associated energetic constraints. We reveal a more complicated relationship between size and reproductive timing than earlier studies, which may be relevant for many species. Knowledge of this relationship is critical to understanding how a changing climate will influence population dynamics of economically, ecologically, and recreationally important species like M. dolomieu.