Adaptation to environmental unpredictability in rotifers: an experimental evolution approach

2018

Organisms living in changing environments might develop evolutionary responses in order to deal with environmental unpredictability. It is remarkable that selection due to environmental unpredictability can act on multiple traits of the life cycle to reduce the impact of environmental variability. Cyclically parthenogenetic rotifers inhabiting time varying water bodies are expected to develop evolutionary responses to cope with environmental unpredictability. In this thesis the first objective was to study the adaptive response of life-history traits related to diapause in the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis using an experimental evolution approach. This experimental approach has been recogni…