scholarly journals Mountain chickadees from different elevations sing different songs: acoustic adaptation, temporal drift or signal of local adaptation?

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 150019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie L. Branch ◽  
Vladimir V. Pravosudov
Keyword(s):  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Elevation Gradient ◽  
Continuous Distribution ◽  
Song Structure ◽  
Local Adaptations ◽  
Acoustic Adaptation ◽  
Food Caching ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Mountain Chickadees

Song in songbirds is widely thought to function in mate choice and male–male competition. Song is also phenotypically plastic and typically learned from local adults; therefore, it varies across geographical space and can serve as a cue for an individual's location of origin, with females commonly preferring males from their respective location. Geographical variation in song dialect may reflect acoustic adaptation to different environments and/or serve as a signal of local adaptation. In montane environments, environmental differences can occur over an elevation gradient, favouring local adaptations across small spatial scales. We tested whether food caching mountain chickadees, known to exhibit elevation-related differences in food caching intensity, spatial memory and the hippocampus, also sing different dialects despite continuous distribution and close proximity. Male songs were collected from high and low elevations at two different mountains (separated by 35 km) to test whether song differs between elevations and/or between adjacent populations at each mountain. Song structure varied significantly between high and low elevation adjacent populations from the same mountain and between populations from different mountains at the same elevations, despite a continuous distribution across each mountain slope. These results suggest that elevation-related differences in song structure in chickadees might serve as a signal for local adaptation.

scholarly journals Predictably harsh environment is associated with reduced cognitive flexibility in wild food-caching mountain chickadees

2017 ◽  
Vol 123 ◽  
pp. 139-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Croston ◽  
Carrie L. Branch ◽  
Angela M. Pitera ◽  
Dovid Y. Kozlovsky ◽  
Eli S. Bridge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Harsh Environment ◽  
Food Caching ◽  
Mountain Chickadees

scholarly journals Evolutionary origins for ecological patterns in space

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (30) ◽  
pp. 17482-17490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. Urban ◽  
Sharon Y. Strauss ◽  
Fanie Pelletier ◽  
Eric P. Palkovacs ◽  
Mathew A. Leibold ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Keystone Species ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Evolutionary Divergence ◽  
Patch Selection ◽  
Fully Integrated ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Ecological Patterns

Historically, many biologists assumed that evolution and ecology acted independently because evolution occurred over distances too great to influence most ecological patterns. Today, evidence indicates that evolution can operate over a range of spatial scales, including fine spatial scales. Thus, evolutionary divergence across space might frequently interact with the mechanisms that also determine spatial ecological patterns. Here, we synthesize insights from 500 eco-evolutionary studies and develop a predictive framework that seeks to understand whether and when evolution amplifies, dampens, or creates ecological patterns. We demonstrate that local adaptation can alter everything from spatial variation in population abundances to ecosystem properties. We uncover 14 mechanisms that can mediate the outcome of evolution on spatial ecological patterns. Sometimes, evolution amplifies environmental variation, especially when selection enhances resource uptake or patch selection. The local evolution of foundation or keystone species can create ecological patterns where none existed originally. However, most often, we find that evolution dampens existing environmental gradients, because local adaptation evens out fitness across environments and thus counteracts the variation in associated ecological patterns. Consequently, evolution generally smooths out the underlying heterogeneity in nature, making the world appear less ragged than it would be in the absence of evolution. We end by highlighting the future research needed to inform a fully integrated and predictive biology that accounts for eco-evolutionary interactions in both space and time.

scholarly journals Female northern grass lizards judge mates by body shape to reinforce local adaptation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kun Guo ◽  
Chen Chen ◽  
Xiao-Fang Liang ◽  
Yan-Fu Qu ◽  
Xiang Ji
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Differentiation ◽  
Genetic Distance ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Body Shape ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Mate Preference ◽  
Population Divergence ◽  
Female Mate Preference ◽  
Local Adaptations ◽  
Female Mate

Abstract Background: Identifying the factors that contribute to divergence among populations in mate preferences is important for understanding of the manner in which premating reproductive isolation might arise and how this isolation may in turn contribute to the evolutionary process of population divergence. Here, we offered female northern grass lizards (Takydromus septentrionalis) a choice of males between their own population and another four populations to test whether the preferences that females display in the mating trials correlate with phenotypic adaptation to local environments, or to the neutral genetic distance measured by divergence of mitochondrial DNA sequence loci. Results: Females showed a strong preference for native over foreign males. Females that mated with native versus foreign males did not differ from each other in mating latency, or copulation duration. From results of the structural equation modelling we knew that: 1) geographical distance directly contributed to genetic differentiation and environmental dissimilarity; 2) genetic differentiation and environmental dissimilarity indirectly contributed to female mate preference, largely through their effects on morphological divergence; and 3) females judged mates by body shape (appearance) and discriminated more strongly against morphologically less familiar allopatric males.Conclusions: Local adaptation rather than neutral genetic distance influences female mate preference in T. septentrionalis. The tendency to avoid mating with foreign males may indicate that, in T. septentrionalis, local adaptations are more valuable than genetic novelties. Our results highlight the importance of comprehensive studies integrating ecological, molecular and behavioral approaches to understand population divergence in female mate preferences as the consequence of local adaptations.

The Vegetation: Hierarchical Species-Environment Relationships

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn D. Walker ◽  
Donald A. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Patterns ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Elevation Gradient ◽  
Community Research ◽  
Physical Factors ◽  
Community Patterns ◽  
Niwot Ridge ◽  
Critical Boundary ◽  
The Individual

The vegetation of Niwot Ridge has a rich history of study, beginning with phytosociological studies directly on the Ridge and in the surrounding mountains and incorporating more experimental and dynamic approaches in later years. This chapter provides an overview of the spatial patterns of Niwot Ridge plants and plant communities relative to the primary controlling environmental gradients at scales from the individual to the landscape. The spatial patterns of vegetation at all scales are dominated by physical forces, particularly the interaction of wind, snow, and topography. The controls of biotic factors on the distribution and abundance of plant species on Niwot Ridge have received considerably less attention than have physical factors, but recent studies have revealed the importance of competition and certain mutualisms in structuring community composition. Community research on Niwot Ridge has been organized around a hierarchy of spatial scales, from the plot to the region. Plot-based studies have focused on physiological and ecological dynamics of specific species and communities, and more spatially extensive studies have provided a hierarchical framework for the plot studies. In this chapter, we first present an overview of the broader patterns in the vegetation, followed by descriptions of the communities, and then the specifics of physical and biotic controls on species and plant growth that drive the community patterns. The landscape-scale patterns in the Niwot vegetation are driven by a complex elevation gradient, which is a combination of temperature and snow regime, with wind modifying and interacting with temperature and snow at all points along the gradient (chapter 2). Certainly the most critical boundary in the system is the upper tree limit, which defines the alpine system and which lies roughly between 3400 and 3600 m elevation on Niwot Ridge. Billings (1988) provided a climatic-floristic-physiographic review of major North American alpine systems that helps to place Niwot Ridge into a larger perspective. Climatically, Niwot is intermediate between the dry Sierras, which have greater precipitation but almost none of it falling during the summer, and the wetter northern Appalachians (Mt. Washington), which have fairly even annual precipitation and no drought.

Crossbreeding reveals the scale and genetic architecture of local adaptation in a predominantly selfing Hordeum spontaneum

2022 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Volis ◽  
I Shulgina ◽  
B Dyuzgenbekova
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Differentiation ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Hordeum Spontaneum ◽  
Term Effect ◽  
Negev Desert ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Local Selection ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
F2 Generation

Environmental variation can be large across a wide range of spatial scales resulting in complex patterns of local adaptation across species ranges. We analyzed the scale, genetic mechanism and direct climatic causes of local adaptation in a widely distributed grass Hordeum spontaneum. We performed artificial crosses of maternal plants representing the same Negev desert population with plants originating elsewhere. Pollen donors were plants from other Negev desert populations, non-desert Israeli populations sampled along an aridity gradient, and accessions covering the entire species range. Our study included planting of inter-population hybrids under favorable and simulated desert experimental conditions, followed by analysis of their performance, variation in adaptive traits and relationship with climatic parameters at sampling locations. The combined results of parental phenotypic variation and performance of hybrids were consistent with local selection, reflecting the importance of both regional and local climates. The adaptive genetic differentiation of barley desert populations had a complex architecture. None of the three effects (additive, dominance and epistasis) were fully responsible for this differentiation. Although genetic effects not related to extrinsic selection appear to contribute to genetic differentiation in barley, epistatic effects arising from local selection clearly predominated. The short-term effect of gene flow by pollen was generally negative, indicating that a majority of the new allele combinations created by recombination were maladaptive. However, the long-term effect of occasional pollen flow from other desert populations appears to be positive, as some new recombined genotypes were superior in fitness to the maternal plants even in the F2 generation.

scholarly journals Ecologically relevant spatial memory use modulates hippocampal neurogenesis

2009 ◽  
Vol 277 (1684) ◽  
pp. 1071-1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara D. LaDage ◽  
Timothy C. Roth ◽  
Rebecca A. Fox ◽  
Vladimir V. Pravosudov
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Hippocampal Neurogenesis ◽  
Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis ◽  
Neural Architecture ◽  
Food Caching ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
Adult Hippocampus ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Mountain Chickadees

The adult hippocampus in birds and mammals undergoes neurogenesis and the resulting new neurons appear to integrate structurally and functionally into the existing neural architecture. However, the factors underlying the regulation of new neuron production is still under scrutiny. In recent years, the concept that spatial memory affects adult hippocampal neurogenesis has gained acceptance, although results attempting to causally link memory use to neurogenesis remain inconclusive, possibly owing to confounds of motor activity, task difficulty or training for the task. Here, we show that ecologically relevant, spatial memory-based experiences of food caching and retrieving directly affect hippocampal neurogenesis in mountain chickadees ( Poecile gambeli ). We found that restricting memory experiences in captivity caused significantly lower rates of neurogenesis, as determined by doublecortin expression, compared with captive individuals provided with such experiences. However, neurogenesis rates in both groups of captive birds were still greatly lower than those in free-ranging conspecifics. These findings show that ecologically relevant spatial memory experiences can directly modulate neurogenesis, separate from other confounds that may also independently affect neurogenesis.

The influence of shrub species and fine-scale plant density on arthropods in a semiarid shrubland

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan B. C. Kwok ◽  
David J. Eldridge
Keyword(s):  
Plant Density ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Arthropod Community ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Arthropod Communities ◽  
Shrub Species ◽  
Multiple Spatial Scales ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Semiarid Shrubland

Plant-resident arthropods are closely tied to the distribution of their hosts across multiple spatial scales. Shrubs provide habitat for a range of arthropods, and variations within shrubland ecosystems may affect arthropod communities. We examined the role of shrub species and density in structuring arthropod communities in an encroached Australian woodland using two common and widespread shrub species, Turpentine (Eremophila sturtii) and Silver Cassia (Senna artemisioides subsp. filifolia). We found five times more arthropods (Psocoptera, Collembola and Hemiptera) on Eremophila compared with Senna. Furthermore, Psyllidae were found only on Eremophila. In total we recorded 39 Hemipteran species; 13 from Eremophila, 16 from Senna and 10 common to both shrub species. Each shrub species supported a unique arthropod assemblage, even though they grow in close proximity (<15 m). In contrast, we found limited effects of fine-scale plant density, with plants growing in low and high density supporting similar arthropod communities. Our study indicated that isolated shrubs in these woodlands support a variety of arthropods, and shrub species is a more important driver of arthropod community structure than fine-scale density.

scholarly journals Invasive predators induce plastic and adaptive responses during embryo development in a threatened frog

NeoBiota ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 69-86
Author(s):  
Martina Muraro ◽  
Samuele Romagnoli ◽  
Benedetta Barzaghi ◽  
Mattia Falaschi ◽  
Raoul Manenti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Embryo Development ◽  
Parental Investment ◽  
Procambarus Clarkii ◽  
Maternal Investment ◽  
Development Stage ◽  
Local Adaptations ◽  
Invasive Predators ◽  
Alien Predator ◽  
Plastic Responses

Invasive predators can strongly affect native populations. If alien predator pressure is strong enough, it can induce anti-predator responses, including phenotypic plasticity of exposed individuals and local adaptations of impacted populations. Furthermore, maternal investment is an additional pathway that could provide resources and improve performance in the presence of alien predators. We investigated the potential responses to an alien predator crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) in a threatened frog (Rana latastei) by combining field observations with laboratory measurements of embryo development rate, to assess the importance of parental investment, origin and exposure to the crayfish cues. We detected a strong variation in parental investment amongst frog populations, but this variation was not related to the invasion status of the site of origin, suggesting that mothers did not modulate parental investment in relation to the presence of alien predators. However, cues of the invasive crayfish elicited plastic responses in clutches and tadpoles development: embryos developed faster when exposed to the predator. Furthermore, embryos from invaded sites reached Gosner’s development stage 25 faster than those from non-invaded sites. This ontogenetic shift can be interpreted as a local adaptation to the alien predator and suggests that frogs are able to recognise the predatory risk. If these plastic responses and local adaptation are effective escape strategies against the invasive predator, they may improve the persistence of native frog populations.

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