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Phenotypic Plasticity vs. Microevolution in Relation to Climate Change
By Elizabeth Berry, Alex Lefort, Andy Tran, and Maya Vrba
(EPA, 2013)
Noticeable Impacts of Climate Change Phenotypic Plasticity vs Microevolution
!! Canadian Squirrel: earlier breeding !! Phenotypic Plasticity: The ability of a genotype to produce different phenotypes in different environments (Charmantier & Gienapp 2013) !! American Mosquito: changes in dormancy !! Microevolution: Evolution in a small scale-within a single population (UC Museum of Paleontology 2008) !! Field Mustard plant: early blooming times !! Distinction: Phenotypic Plasticity acts on individuals, Microevolution acts on populations. !! Drosophila melanogaster: changes in gene flow !! Norm of Reaction: The range of phenotypic variation available to a given genotype that can change based on the environment. University of California Museum of Paleontology, 2008
European Great Tit: Parus major European Blackcap: Sylvia atricapilla
!! Breeding times are evolving earlier in females to account for !! ADCYAP1: gene that controls the Climate Change. expression of migratory behavior !! Phenotypic Plasticity evident in (Mueller et al., 2011) laying times. !! Migratory activity is heritable and population-specific (Berthold & !! Some females having more flexible laying dates. Pulido 1994) ! Climate change causes evolving !! Success of offspring dependent ! on breeding times and caterpillar migratory patterns (Berthold & biomass coinciding, Pulido 1994) Jerry Nicholls and BBC, 2014 University of California Museum of Paleontology, !! Reproductive success due to 2008 arriving at autumn breeding grounds earlier. University of California Museum of Paleontology, 2008 Nussey et. al., 2005
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The Adaptive Landscape & Selection on Phenotypic Plasticity Phenotypic Plasticity !! Larger Peaks represent !! Nussey et al collected reports environmental Adaptive Peaks from over 32 years on or mean fitness European Great Tits !! Smaller Peaks represent !! Selection heavily acting upon phenotypic population mean plasticity or population distribution. !! Plasticity Axis: ! Solid Lines represent old ! o! laying date-spring environment temperature slope ! Dashed Lines represent new ! o! more negative = earlier environment laying after hot springs !! Phenotypic plasticity allows !! Confused yet? populations to survive in Price et al., 2003 o! Focus on the red lines! rapidly changing environments Nussey et al., 2005
“Climate change and timing of avian breeding and The Blackcap and Microevolution migration: evolutionary vs plastic changes”
!! Migratory activity recorded: 280 S. German blackcaps from 69 families !! Great tit breeding studies: egg-laying date has advanced by about 14 days (Charmantier et al., 2008); blackcap migratory activity experiments: delay !! Heritability calculated by parent-offspring in mean autumn departure date (Pulido et al., 2001) regression ! Bird phenology depends on many cues influenced by climate change: !! Phenotypic and additive ! genetic variation for temperature, photoperiod (Lambrechts et al, 1997) migratory activity could lead to rapid evolutionary changes of !! Timing of breeding and migration are heritable in some species and are migratory habits under strong negative selection in the face of climate change h2 = 0.453 !! Blackcaps could evolve into short-distance migrants in 10-20 generations Berthold and Pulido, 1994 Charmantier and Gienapp, 2013
“Climate change and timing of avian breeding and “Climate change and timing of avian breeding and migration: evolutionary vs plastic changes” migration: evolutionary vs plastic changes”
!! To demonstrate this only shows potential for adaptive evolution (Teplitsky et al., 2010)
!! Lack of tests for microevolutionary changes in bird phenology in response to climate change
!! Important for individual plasticity to be measured
!! Assessment of changes at molecular genetic level
Charmantier and Gienapp, 2013
Charmantier and Gienapp, 2013
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Conclusions Conclusions
!! What we Expect: !! Consequences: o! Microevolution slower (usually) o! Species dependent on microevolution less likely to !! Why usually? survive !! Depends on variation !! Large variation helpful o! Plasticity faster (usually) o! Plasticity will be selected upon for wider norms of !! Plasticity variable reaction !! Not all phenotypes have broad norms of reaction o! Ecological Disruption !! Affects species AND environment! !! Caveat: o! Ultimately context dependent. Why? !! Environment !! Variation present !! Depends on impact
Questions Answers
1) How can we effectively use pedigree and phenotypic data to test for 1) Obtain more individual data; develop multi-trait measures and evolutionary changes in bird phenology? analyses; look at the evolution of plasticity; look at responses in populations of the same species; look at more diverse ecological niches (Charmantier and 2) Plasticity or micro-evolution; which would you expect to benefit a population Gienapp, 2013) more in the face of climate change? 2) Though if given a large variation microevolution can adapt surprisingly fast, 3) How fast would we expect a large population to evolve theoretically to adapt plasticity is able to adapt at a faster rate and often to a broader extent. to climate change? Why? Given realistic time periods, what do you believe (Charmantier and Gienapp, 2013) would happen to this population? 3) Given usual rates of evolution, we would expect adaptation to be very slow. This is due to the spread of an allele through a population generally takes many generations. Due to the relatively slow adaptation of microevolution, we would expect the population to go extinct, unless there was huge variation.
Citations Citations
Mueller, J.C., F. Pulido and B. Kempenaers. 2011. Identification of a gene associated with avian migratory Berthold P, F Pulido. 1994. Heritability of migratory activity in a natural bird population. Proceedings: Biological behaviour. Proc. R. Soc.B. 1-9. Sciences. 257(1350): 311 - 315. !! Information on migratory gene !! Article on the blackcap and microevolution; clear graph for proof of heritability Teplitsky, C., J.A. Mills, J.W. Yarrall, and J. Merila. 2010. Indirect genetic effects in a sex-limited trait: the case of Charmantier A. and P Gienapp. 2014. Climate change and timing of avian breeding and migration: evolutionary breeding time in red-billed gulls. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 23: 935-944. versus plastic changes. Evolutionary Applications. 7(1): 15 - 28. !! Information on adaptive evolution; found via main source !! This article was our main source for linking the ideas of microevolution and plasticity; it also gave us access to other helpful sources as it is a review article. Nussey DH, E Postma, P Gienapp, ME Visser. 2005. Selection on heritable phenotypic plasticity in a wild bird population. Science. 310(304): 304 - 306. Charmantier, A., R.H. McCleery, L.R. Cole, C.M.Perrins, L.E.B.Kruuk, and B.C. Sheldon. 2008. Adaptive phenotypic !! Article on phenotypic plasticity and the great tit; valuable graphic to represent this plasticity in response to climate change in a wild bird population. Science. 320: 800-804. !! This article was found via our main source; gave information on great tit breeding studies Price TD, A Qvarnström, DE Irwin. 2003. The role of phenotypic plasticity in driving genetic evolution. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. (270): 1433 - 1440. Lambrechts, M.M., J. Blondel, M.Maistre, and P.Perret. 1997. A single response mechanism is responsible for !! Adaptive landscape graphic evolutionary adaptive variation in a bird’s laying date. Proc. of the Nat. Acad. of Science USA. 94: 5153-5155. !! Found via main source; information on climate change: temperature and photoperiod effects Pulido, F., P. Berthold, G. Mohr, and U. Querner. 2001. Heritability of the timing of autumn migration in a natural bird population. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences. 268: 953-959 !! Information on blackcap and migratory activity experiments; found via main source.
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Citations
University of California Museum of Paleontology [Internet]. Berkeley (CA): Understanding Evolution; c2014. Warming to Evolution; July 2008 [cited 2014 Jun. 1]; [about 2 screens]. Available from: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/060701_warming. !! Information on climate change and its effects on various species; provided us with birds of focus
Images [EPA] Environmental Protection Agency. [Internet]. 2013. A Student lif to Global climate change.Available from:
Nichols, J., BBC. 2014. NATURE Wildlife: Great tit. Available from:
[UCMP] University of Californa Museum of Paleantology. Jul 2008. Warming to Evolution. Available from:
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