Factors influencing hermaphroditism in Teleost fish

16th Congress of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology (ISBE 2016), 28 July - 3 August 2016, Exeter, United KingdomThe understanding of hermaphroditism is of great interest in ecology and evolutionary studies on sex allocation theory. However, although some ecological and phylogenetic patterns have been identified, a comprehensive analysis of the phylogenetic vs. environmental correlates explaining the distribution of hermaphrodites across fishes is lacking. Drawing upon all elements of the literature together with information extracted from Fishbase, we selected 47 valid variables and carried out a comprehensive metaanalysis, quantifying the relative importance of phylogenetic, ecological, lifehistory and reproduction-related variables in three comparisons: 1) presence of hermaphroditism vs. gonochorism, 2) sequential vs. simultaneous hermaphroditism, and 3) protogynous vs. protandrous hermaphroditism. Our results show that mainly environmental, phylogenetic and reproductive + lifehistory variables explain each one of the three comparisons, respectively. The results of this study can serve as a foundation for further studies of hermaphroditism in a particular group of fishesPeer Reviewe