Meeting Abstract
When water availability is highly variable, terrestrial animals may struggle to maintain water balance. If water becomes limited, animals may disperse to higher quality environments where water is more abundant. However, dispersal itself may be dependent on adequate water availability because locomotor muscles require high water concentration to function properly. Therefore, does water limitation constrain or promote the maintenance of musculature associated with dispersal? We investigated this dilemma using the sand field cricket (Gryllus firmus), which displays natural variation in investment into dispersal-based flight muscle. Flight capable long-winged morphs of G. firmus invest in flight musculature in contrast to flightless short-winged morphs. We placed newly molted adults of both morphs and sexes into two water treatment groups—ad libitum water access vs. restricted access to water (water unavailable)—while we controlled temperature and access to dry food. Over five days, we examined how water deprivation affected flight muscle status, gonad mass, body condition, and mortality. Our results will provide new insight into how animals cope with acute periods of dehydration—specifically, the role of water availability in fitness-related traits (e.g., survival and investment into reproduction) and trait-trait interactions (e.g., the tradeoff between flight and fecundity).
