Interplay of robustness and plasticity of life-history traits drives ecotypic differentiation in thermally distinct habitats
Date
05/2015Keywords
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Abstract
Phenotypic plasticity describes the ability of an individual to alter its phenotype in response to the environment and is potentially adaptive when dealing with environmental variation. However, robustness in the face of a changing environment may often be beneficial for traits that are tightly linked to fitness. We hypothesized that robustness of some traits may depend on specific patterns of plasticity within and among other traits. We used a reaction norm approach to study robustness and phenotypic plasticity of three life-history traits of the collembolan Orchesella cincta in environments with different thermal regimes. We measured adult mass, age at maturity and growth rate of males and females from heath and forest habitats at two temperatures (12 and 22 °C). We found evidence for ecotype-specific robustness of female adult mass to temperature, with a higher level of robustness in the heath ecotype. This robustness is facilitated by plastic adjustments of growth rate and age at maturity. Furthermore, female fecundity is strongly influenced by female adult mass, explaining the importance of realizing a high mass across temperatures for females. These findings indicate that different predicted outcomes of life-history theory can be combined within one species' ontogeny and that models describing life-history strategies should not assume that traits like growth rate are maximized under all conditions. On a methodological note, we report a systematic inflation of variation when standard deviations and correlation coefficients are calculated from family means as opposed to individual data within a family structure.
Citation
Liefting , M , van Grunsven , R H A , Morrissey , M B , Timmermans , M J T N & Ellers , J 2015 , ' Interplay of robustness and plasticity of life-history traits drives ecotypic differentiation in thermally distinct habitats ' , Journal of Evolutionary Biology , vol. 28 , no. 5 , pp. 1057-1066 . https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12629
Publication
Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1010-061XType
Journal article
Rights
Copyright 2015. European Society for Evolutionary Biology. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Interplay of robustness and plasticity of life-history traits drives ecotypic differentiation in thermally distinct habitats Liefting, M., van Grunsven, R. H. A., Morrissey, M. B., Timmermans, M. J. T. N. & Ellers, J. May 2015 In : Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 28, 5, p. 1057-1066, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12629. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
Description
JE and ML were supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, VIDI Grant No. 864.03.003 and VICI Grant No. 865.12.003. MBM was supported by a University Research Fellowship from the Royal Society (London). Date of Acceptance: 23/03/2015Collections
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