Phenotypic plasticity and the effects of thermal fluctuations on specialists and generalists

Author:

Jacob Staffan1ORCID,Dupont Léonard1,Haegeman Bart2,Thierry Mélanie1ORCID,Campana Julie L. M.1,Legrand Delphine1,Cote Julien3ORCID,Raffard Allan4ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Station d'Écologie Théorique et Expérimentale, UAR2029, CNRS, Moulis 09200, France

2. CNRS/Sorbonne Université, UMR7621 Laboratoire d’Océanographie Microbienne, Banyuls-sur-Mer, France

3. Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l'Environnement (CRBE), UMR 5300, CNRS-IRD-TINP-UT3, Toulouse 31062 Cedex 9, France

4. Université catholique de Louvain, Earth and Life Institute, Biodiversity Research Centre, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Abstract

Classical theories predict that relatively constant environments should generally favour specialists, while fluctuating environments should be selected for generalists. However, theoretical and empirical results have pointed out that generalist organisms might, on the contrary, perform poorly under fluctuations. In particular, if generalism is underlaid by phenotypic plasticity, performance of generalists should be modulated by the temporal characteristics of environmental fluctuations. Here, we used experiments in microcosms of Tetrahymena thermophila ciliates and a mathematical model to test whether the period or autocorrelation of thermal fluctuations mediate links between the level of generalism and the performance of organisms under fluctuations. In the experiment, thermal fluctuations consistently impeded performance compared with constant conditions. However, the intensity of this effect depended on the level of generalism: while the more specialist strains performed better under fast or negatively autocorrelated fluctuations, plastic generalists performed better under slow or positively autocorrelated fluctuations. Our model suggests that these effects of fluctuations on organisms’ performance may result from a time delay in the expression of plasticity, restricting its benefits to slow enough fluctuations. This study points out the need to further investigate the temporal dynamics of phenotypic plasticity to better predict its fitness consequences under environmental fluctuations.

Funder

European Research Council

F.R.S-FNRS

Agence Nationale de la Recherche

Publisher

The Royal Society

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3