scholarly journals Beyond buying time: the role of plasticity in phenotypic adaptation to rapid environmental change

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1768) ◽  
pp. 20180174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca J. Fox ◽  
Jennifer M. Donelson ◽  
Celia Schunter ◽  
Timothy Ravasi ◽  
Juan D. Gaitán-Espitia
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
The Future ◽  
Selection For ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Plastic Responses ◽  
Rapid Environmental Change

How populations and species respond to modified environmental conditions is critical to their persistence both now and into the future, particularly given the increasing pace of environmental change. The process of adaptation to novel environmental conditions can occur via two mechanisms: (1) the expression of phenotypic plasticity (the ability of one genotype to express varying phenotypes when exposed to different environmental conditions), and (2) evolution via selection for particular phenotypes, resulting in the modification of genetic variation in the population. Plasticity, because it acts at the level of the individual, is often hailed as a rapid-response mechanism that will enable organisms to adapt and survive in our rapidly changing world. But plasticity can also retard adaptation by shifting the distribution of phenotypes in the population, shielding it from natural selection. In addition to which, not all plastic responses are adaptive—now well-documented in cases of ecological traps. In this theme issue, we aim to present a considered view of plasticity and the role it could play in facilitating or hindering adaption to environmental change. This introduction provides a re-examination of our current understanding of the role of phenotypic plasticity in adaptation and sets the theme issue's contributions in their broader context. Four key themes emerge: the need to measure plasticity across both space and time; the importance of the past in predicting the future; the importance of the link between plasticity and sexual selection; and the need to understand more about the nature of selection on plasticity itself. We conclude by advocating the need for cross-disciplinary collaborations to settle the question of whether plasticity will promote or retard species' rates of adaptation to ever-more stressful environmental conditions. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The role of plasticity in phenotypic adaptation to rapid environmental change’.

scholarly journals Sex differences in helping effort reveal the effect of future reproduction on cooperative behaviour in birds

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1885) ◽  
pp. 20181164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip A. Downing ◽  
Ashleigh S. Griffin ◽  
Charlie K. Cornwallis
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Cooperative Behaviour ◽  
The Future ◽  
Helping Behaviour ◽  
Future Reproduction ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Family Groups

The evolution of helping behaviour in species that breed cooperatively in family groups is typically attributed to kin selection alone. However, in many species, helpers go on to inherit breeding positions in their natal groups, but the extent to which this contributes to selection for helping is unclear as the future reproductive success of helpers is often unknown. To quantify the role of future reproduction in the evolution of helping, we compared the helping effort of female and male retained offspring across cooperative birds. The kin selected benefits of helping are equivalent between female and male helpers—they are equally related to the younger siblings they help raise—but the future reproductive benefits of helping differ because of sex differences in the likelihood of breeding in the natal group. We found that the sex which is more likely to breed in its natal group invests more in helping, suggesting that in addition to kin selection, helping in family groups is shaped by future reproduction.

scholarly journals Covariation of metabolic rates and cell size in coccolithophores

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 4665-4692 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Aloisi
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Cell Size ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Opposite Effect ◽  
Cell Structure ◽  
Metabolic Rates ◽  
The Future ◽  
Phytoplankton Group

Abstract. Coccolithophores are sensitive recorders of environmental change. The size of their coccosphere varies in the ocean along gradients of environmental conditions and provides a key for understanding the fate of this important phytoplankton group in the future ocean. But interpreting field changes in coccosphere size in terms of laboratory observations is hard, mainly because the marine signal reflects the response of multiple morphotypes to changes in a combination of environmental variables. In this paper I examine the large corpus of published laboratory experiments with coccolithophores looking for relations between environmental conditions, metabolic rates and cell size (a proxy for coccosphere size). I show that growth, photosynthesis and, to a lesser extent, calcification covary with cell size when pCO2, irradiance, temperature, nitrate, phosphate and iron conditions change. With the exception of phosphate and temperature, a change from limiting to non-limiting conditions always results in an increase in cell size. An increase in phosphate or temperature (below the optimum temperature for growth) produces the opposite effect. The magnitude of the coccosphere-size changes observed in the laboratory is comparable to that observed in the ocean. If the biological reasons behind the environment–metabolism–size link are understood, it will be possible to use coccosphere-size changes in the modern ocean and in marine sediments to investigate the fate of coccolithophores in the future ocean. This reasoning can be extended to the size of coccoliths if, as recent experiments are starting to show, coccolith size reacts to environmental change proportionally to coccosphere size. The coccolithophore database is strongly biased in favour of experiments with the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi (E. huxleyi; 82 % of database entries), and more experiments with other species are needed to understand whether these observations can be extended to coccolithophores in general. I introduce a simple model that simulates the growth rate and the size of cells forced by nitrate and phosphate concentrations. By considering a simple rule that allocates the energy flow from nutrient acquisition to cell structure (biomass) and cell maturity (biological complexity, eventually leading to cell division), the model is able to reproduce the covariation of growth rate and cell size observed in laboratory experiments with E. huxleyi when these nutrients become limiting. These results support ongoing efforts to interpret coccosphere and coccolith size measurements in the context of climate change.

scholarly journals Understanding interactions between plasticity, adaptation and range shifts in response to marine environmental change

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1768) ◽  
pp. 20180186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Donelson ◽  
Jennifer M. Sunday ◽  
Will F. Figueira ◽  
Juan Diego Gaitán-Espitia ◽  
Alistair J. Hobday ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Range Shifts ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Marine Environmental ◽  
Rapid Environmental Change

Climate change is leading to shifts in species geographical distributions, but populations are also probably adapting to environmental change at different rates across their range. Owing to a lack of natural and empirical data on the influence of phenotypic adaptation on range shifts of marine species, we provide a general conceptual model for understanding population responses to climate change that incorporates plasticity and adaptation to environmental change in marine ecosystems. We use this conceptual model to help inform where within the geographical range each mechanism will probably operate most strongly and explore the supporting evidence in species. We then expand the discussion from a single-species perspective to community-level responses and use the conceptual model to visualize and guide research into the important yet poorly understood processes of plasticity and adaptation.This article is part of the theme issue ‘The role of plasticity in phenotypic adaptation to rapid environmental change’.

scholarly journals How adaptive plasticity evolves when selected against

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo Rago ◽  
Kostas Kouvaris ◽  
Tobias Uller ◽  
Richard Watson
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Adaptive Plasticity ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Local Optima ◽  
Term Selection ◽  
Selection For ◽  
The Individual

AbstractAdaptive plasticity allows organisms to cope with environmental change, thereby increasing the population’s long-term fitness. However, individual selection can only compare the fitness of individuals within each generation: if the environment changes more slowly than the generation time (i.e., a coarse-grained environment) a population will not experience selection for plasticity even if it is adaptive in the long-term. How does adaptive plasticity then evolve? One explanation is that, if competing alleles conferring different degrees of plasticity persist across multiple environments, natural selection between lineages carrying those alleles could select for adaptive plasticity (lineage selection).We show that adaptive plasticity can evolve even in the absence of such lineage selection. Instead, we propose that adaptive plasticity in coarse-grained environments evolves as a by-product of inefficient short-term natural selection. In our simulations, populations that can efficiently respond to selective pressures follow short-term, local, optima and have lower long-term fitness. Conversely, populations that accumulate limited genetic change within each environment evolve long-term adaptive plasticity even when plasticity incurs short-term costs. These results remain qualitatively similar regardless of whether we decrease the efficiency of natural selection by increasing the rate of environmental change or decreasing mutation rate, demonstrating that both factors act via the same mechanism. We demonstrate how this mechanism can be understood through the concept of learning rate.Our work shows how plastic responses that are costly in the short term, yet adaptive in the long term, can evolve as a by-product of inefficient short-term selection, without selection for plasticity at either the individual or lineage level.

scholarly journals Adaptive phenotypic plasticity in malaria parasites is not constrained by previous responses to environmental change

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-198
Author(s):  
Philip L G Birget ◽  
Petra Schneider ◽  
Aidan J O’Donnell ◽  
Sarah E Reece
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Plastic Response ◽  
Malaria Parasites ◽  
Host Environment ◽  
Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Plastic Responses

Abstract Background and objectives Phenotypic plasticity enables organisms to maximize fitness by matching trait values to different environments. Such adaptive phenotypic plasticity is exhibited by parasites, which experience frequent environmental changes during their life cycle, between individual hosts and also in within-host conditions experienced during infections. Life history theory predicts that the evolution of adaptive phenotypic plasticity is limited by costs and constraints, but tests of these concepts are scarce. Methodology Here, we induce phenotypic plasticity in malaria parasites to test whether mounting a plastic response to an environmental perturbation constrains subsequent plastic responses to further environmental change. Specifically, we perturb red blood cell resource availability to induce Plasmodium chabaudi to alter the trait values of several phenotypes underpinning within-host replication and between-host transmission. We then transfer parasites to unperturbed hosts to examine whether constraints govern the parasites’ ability to alter these phenotypes in response to their new in-host environment. Results Parasites alter trait values in response to the within-host environment they are exposed to. We do not detect negative consequences, for within-host replication or between-host transmission, of previously mounting a plastic response to a perturbed within-host environment. Conclusions and implications We suggest that malaria parasites are highly plastic and adapted to adjusting their phenotypes in response to the frequent changes in the within-host conditions they experience during infections. Our findings support the growing body of evidence that medical interventions, such as anti-parasite drugs, induce plastic responses that are adaptive and can facilitate the survival and potentially, drug resistance of parasites. Lay Summary Malaria parasites have evolved flexible strategies to cope with the changing conditions they experience during infections. We show that using such flexible strategies does not impact upon the parasites’ ability to grow (resulting in disease symptoms) or transmit (spreading the disease).

scholarly journals The role of gardens in the 19th century asylums for the mentally and neurotically ill. The theory and practice by the example of the Prussian asylums in the former Province of Posen

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 00007
Author(s):  
Daria Bręczewska-Kulesza
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Health States ◽  
Urban Configurations ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The 19Th Century

Although mental illnesses have existed ever since the dawn of time, the development of psychiatry is dated to have begun from the end 18th century. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, mentally ill people began to be placed at mental facilities not only to be exercised care of, but also to have their health states improved. The movement of reformation expanded across entire Europe. The Kingdom of Prussia was no exception when it came to establishing asylums. Wanting to create the best environmental conditions for the mentally ill possible, all of the complexes of the asylums were designed so that they served therapeutic purposes. One of the vital elements in this regard was the hospital gardens. The said gardens comprised of partially open, decorative green squares, outlined by the fences of the gardens assigned to the individual wards meant for the mentally ill and the utility gardens, where therapy through labor could be exercised. In conformity with the prototypes described above, in the former Province of Posen four asylums were built. The article analyzes the development of gardens within the urban configurations of select hospitals, comparing them to the leading gardens and theoretical configurations described in the specialist literature.

Inclusions and the Role of the Individual

2019 ◽  
pp. 93-124
Author(s):  
Taraneh R. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Intellectual Traditions ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Individual

This chapter continues the discussion of the work of Recep Alpyağıl. While the previous chapter discussed the question of what constitutes and authentically Turkish Muslim canon of philosophical theology and why it is integral to the Turkish context, this chapter investigates Alpyağıl’s views as to what this canon might look like in practice, how it relates to religious hermeneutics, and the role of the individual Muslim in navigating and drawing meaning from such a canon. For Alpyağıl, the individual stands in “hypoleptic” continuity with her past, best represented as a spiral that reaches back to the past but also moves forward into the future. This chapter portrays Alpyağıl’s vision of the believing individual in continuity with past and with future as a prime example of how Turkish theology can dialectically make use of multiple intellectual traditions to resist being reduced to simplified binaries.

scholarly journals Prosperity of the Family - the Future of the World and the Church

Family Forum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 37-55
Author(s):  
Jindřich Šrajer
Keyword(s):  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

From a historical point of view, it can be argued that the cultivated arrangement of the relationship between man and woman, the support of the institution of marriage, and therefore families, have always been one of the important requirements of individual cultures and religions. There is also a close connection between the state of society (and the dominant requirements in it) and the form of personal and family life. In the Western cultural space with the decisive ecclesiastical discourse, the view of marriage and the family was not spared from one-sidedness and problematic practice. The current magisterium of the Catholic Church remains critical of some contemporary trends and phenomena, including the questioning of the very institution of marriage and the family. At the same time, it remains open to new challenges in this field.The article aims to critically reflect on some issues related to the current situation of marriage and the family, especially the individual and social ethical context of married and family life in contemporary Western culture.Using a reflection of the findings of selected authors, especially of sociologists (Lipovetsky, Beck), the article demonstrates the reality of problematic „points“ of the present time (marked by magisterial texts by Pope Francis) and their connection to married and family life. It thus verifies the thesis that the preconditions for marriage and the family are currently weakened in the Western area. This state of affairs include even the institutions that want to invoke the necessary personal and social responses to the problematic situation. Although the study does not capture the full range of issues and problems currently associated with marriage and the family, it does demonstrate that marital and family relationships in contemporary Western culture are conditioned by a number of factors. Those cannot be fully influenced by the individuals directly affected. The study points to the crucial role of politics, including its responsibility and to the exclusive role of the Church. The Church can, in many respects, increase respect for the institutions and bring a concrete help to the people.The result of the study is an emphasis on the fact that, in the current situation, it is not easy for individuals or families to maintain their own integrative values. It is not easy to withstand the pressures from the outside, to not succumb to the vision of success offered by the majority society. It is also problematic that the focus of politics is not predominantly on the family but, above all, on the immediate interests of the individual. Politics is irresponsibly undercutting itself in order to get into favor of individuals.The conclusion of the study confirms the validity of the magisterial belief that the prosperity of the family is crucial for the future of the world and the Church. Marriage and the family are natural communities that correspond to a person‘s anthropological setting. They allow him or her to find his or her own identity. They are a guarantee of the humanization of the person and society, a protection against deformations of the individualistic or collectivist type.

scholarly journals Peran Konselor dalam Mereduksi Tingkat Kenakalan Remaja di Kabupaten Pandeglang

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 171
Author(s):  
Dody Riswanto
Keyword(s):  
Juvenile Delinquency ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Research Method ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
The Future ◽  
Qualitative Data Collection

Abstract: This study discusses juvenile delinquency studies in Pandeglang district and the role of counselors in resolving the juvenile delinquency phenomenon, the research method used is qualitative data collection techniques of interviews, observation, and documentation studies, researchers act as key instruments, observations carried out for 1 year, interviews were conducted with 3 respondents, and documentation studies were collected from various literature, the findings and discussion of the study illustrated that juvenile delinquency consisted of criminal theft of motorbikes, high speed motorbikes and modified exhausts, and did not care about the environmental conditions of the residence , the conclusion of the study is that the role of the counselor is very important in reducing the level of juvenile delinquency with the counselor's mental and psychological readiness, namely the ability of the counselor to lead, understand multiculturalism, provide reinforcement to students, and train themselves in order to have good personality competencies, the implications of this research are very important for school teachers and the community to measure the level of juvenile delinquency and how to prevent future levels of juvenile delinquency in the future.  Abstrak: Penelitian ini membahas tentang studi kenakalan remaja di kabupaten Pandeglang dan peran konselor dalam menyelesaikan fenomena kenakalan remaja tersebut, metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah kualitatif dengan teknik pengumpulan data wawancara, observasi, dan studi dokumentasi, peneliti berperan sebagai instrumen kunci, observasi dilaksanakan selama 1 tahun, wawancara dilakukan bersama 3 orang responden, dan studi dokumentasi dikumpulkan dari berbagai literature, hasil temuan dan pembahasan penelitian menjabarkan bahwa kenakalan remaja terdiri dari tindakan kriminal pencurian sepeda motor, memacu sepeda motor dengan kecepatan tinggi dan knalpot modifikasi, serta tidak peduli terhadap kondisi lingkungan tempat tinggal, kesimpulan penelitian adalah bahwa peran konselor sangat penting dalam mereduksi tingkat kenakalan remaja dengan kesiapan mental dan psikis konselor, yaitu kemampuan konselor dalam memimpin, memahami multikulturalisme, memberikan penguatan kepada siswa, dan melatih diri agar memiliki kompetensi kepribadian yang baik, implikasi penelitian ini sangat penting bagi guru sekolah dan masyarakat untuk mengukur tingkat kenakalan remaja dan bagaimana strategi dalam mencegah tingkat kenakalan remaja di masa mendatang.

scholarly journals Host quality induces phenotypic plasticity in a wing polyphenic insect

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (29) ◽  
pp. 7563-7568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinda Lin ◽  
Yili Xu ◽  
Jianru Jiang ◽  
Mark Lavine ◽  
Laura Corley Lavine
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Brown Planthopper ◽  
Wing Development ◽  
Host Quality ◽  
Rice Plants ◽  
Rice Pest ◽  
Wing Growth

Food quality is a critical environmental condition that impacts an animal’s growth and development. Many insects facing this challenge have evolved a phenotypically plastic, adaptive response. For example, many species of insect exhibit facultative wing growth, which reflects a physiological and evolutionary trade-off between dispersal and reproduction, triggered by environmental conditions. What the environmental cues are and how they are transduced to produce these alternative forms, and their associated ecological shift from dispersal to reproduction, remains an important unsolved problem in evolutionary ecology. In this study, we investigated the role that host quality has on the induction of wing development in a wing polyphenic insect exhibiting strong tradeoffs in investment between dispersal and reproduction, the brown planthopper, a serious rice pest in Asia. As rice plants grow, the short-winged brown planthopper dominates the population, but a shift occurs as the plants mature and senesce in the field such that long-winged brown planthoppers emerge and migrate. It remains unknown how changes in the rice plant induce development of the long-winged morph, despite recent discoveries on the role of the insulin and JNK signaling pathways in wing development. We found that by mimicking the glucose concentration of senescing rice plants, we significantly increased the proportion of long-winged female planthoppers. The effects of glucose on wing morph are additive with previously described effects of density. Our results show that host quality both directly regulates phenotypic plasticity and interacts with other factors such as density to produce the appropriate phenotype for specific environmental conditions.

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