Search results for "PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY"
showing 10 items of 93 documents
Geographical variation in wing polymorphism of the waterstrider Aquarius najas (Heteroptera, Gerridae)
1999
The waterstrider Aquarius najas is wingless in Northern Europe, while winged individuals occur frequently in Central and Southern Europe. To test if the latitudinal difference is genetically controlled, we collected mature individuals from 10 different populations and raised their offspring in ‘common garden’ laboratory conditions. Half of these populations were from southern and the other half from central Finland. Daylength and temperature do influence wing development among other species of waterstriders, and thus we maintained a similar short daylength and warm conditions for all populations. These conditions should be favourable for wing development in general. Among laboratory-bred in…
Surviving in a warmer world: environmental and genetic responses
2012
There are numerous reports in the literature of advancing trends in phenophases of plants, insects and birds attributed to rising temperature resulting from human-driven climate warming. One mechanism that enables a population to respond rapidly to changes in the environ- ment is termed phenotypic plasticity. This plasticity grants a degree of flexibility to enable the tim- ing of developmental stages to coincide with resource availability. If, however, environmental con- ditions exceed the plastic limits of an organism, evolutionary change may be necessary in order to ensure continued survival of their populations. We review evidence for phenotypic plasticity and genetic adaptation in phen…
Multiple aspects of plasticity in clutch size vary among populations of a globally-distributed songbird.
2013
Plasticity in life-history characteristics can influence many ecological and evolutionary phenomena, including how invading organisms cope with novel conditions in new locations or how environmental change affects organisms in native locations. Variation in reaction norm attributes is a critical element to understanding plasticity in life history, yet we know relatively little about the ways in which reaction norms vary within and among populations. We amassed data on clutch size from marked females in eight populations of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) from North America and Europe. We exploited repeated measures of clutch size to assess both the extent of within-individual phenotypic …
Effects of overabundant nitrate and warmer temperatures on charophytes: The roles of plasticity and local adaptation
2018
Global change effects, such as warming and increases in nitrogen loading, alter vulnerable Mediterranean aquatic systems, and charophytes can be one of the most affected groups. We addressed the possible interaction between these factors on two populations of the cosmopolitan charophytes Chara hispida and Chara vulgaris. Populations were taken from two different environments, a nitrate-poor mountain lake and a nitrate-rich Mediterranean coastal spring. The laboratory experiment had a 2 × 2 factorial design based on two nitrate levels (similar to and double the local conditions) and two temperatures. Increased temperatures favoured the growth of the four populations, but an increase in nitra…
Detecting Cd adaptation footprint in C. riparius with a multi-genomic approach
2021
AbstractEvolutionary processes and acquired tolerance to toxicants are important factors governing how animals respond to chemical exposure. Evidence for increased tolerance to cadmium (Cd), a widely distributed toxic metal in aquatic environments, in Chironomus riparius is conflicting and still questioned if it happens through phenotypic plasticity or genetic adaptation. The present study considered the relevance of directional environmental changes by increasing contaminant concentration in a multigenerational selection experiment. Evaluation of measurable life-cycle traits, transcriptomic responses and quantitative genetics from an evolve and resequencing (E&R) experiment were integr…
Data from: Coping with the climate: cuticular hydrocarbon acclimation of ants under constant and fluctuating conditions
2018
Terrestrial arthropods achieve waterproofing by a layer of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs). At the same time, CHCs also serve as communication signals. To maintain waterproofing under different climate conditions, insects adjust the chemical composition of their CHC layer, but this may affect the communication via CHC. The detailed acclimatory changes of CHCs and how these influence their physical properties are still unknown. Here, we studied acclimation in two closely related ant species with distinct CHC profiles, Myrmica rubra and Myrmica ruginodis, in response to constant or fluctuating temperature and humidity regimes. We measured how acclimation affected CHC composition and viscosity, …
The Function of Plastic Reproductive Behaviour in Drosophila melanogaster
2022
Phenotypic plasticity is a widespread phenomenon across the tree of life, with far reaching consequences for ecological and evolutionary processes. In species facing strong sexual selection and marked variation in the socio-sexual context in which they reproduce, adaptive plasticity in reproductive behaviour is expected to evolve. In this thesis, we aimed to contribute to this area of evolutionary biology research using the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. The results of this thesis offer a twist to the steadily growing literature of ageing via sensory perception by showing that socio-sexual cues so far documented to accelerate ageing mostly bear fitness benefits in ecologically rele…
Variation in spawning time promotes genetic variability in population responses to environmental change in a marine fish.
2015
Common-garden experiments suggest that the response of Atlantic cod larvae to temperature differs among populations that spawn at different times of year. Populations appear to be adapted to the temperatures experienced during the larval stage at a small spatial scale, despite a lack of physical barriers to gene flow.
Mixed support for an alignment between phenotypic plasticity and genetic differentiation in damselfly wing shape
2023
The relationship between genetic differentiation and phenotypic plasticity can provide information on whether plasticity generally facilitates or hinders adaptation to environmental change. Here, we studied wing shape variation in a damselfly (Lestes sponsa) across a latitudinal gradient in Europe that differed in time constraints mediated by photoperiod and temperature. We reared damselflies from northern and southern populations in the laboratory using a reciprocal transplant experiment that simulated time-constrained (i.e. northern) and unconstrained (southern) photoperiods and temperatures. After emergence, adult wing shape was analysed using geometric morphometrics. Wings from individu…
Experimental evolution in fluctuating environments: tolerance measurements at constant temperatures incorrectly predict the ability to tolerate fluct…
2015
The ability to predict the consequences of fluctuating environments on species distribution and extinction often relies on determining the tolerances of species or genotypes in different constant environments (i.e. determining tolerance curves). However, very little is known about the suitability of measurements made in constant environments to predict the level of adaptation to rapidly fluctuating environments. To explore this question, we used bacterial clones adapted to constant or fluctuating temperatures and found that measurements across a range of constant temperatures did not indicate any adaptation to fluctuating temperatures. However, adaptation to fluctuating temperatures was onl…