scholarly journals High connectivity across environmental gradients and implications for phenotypic plasticity in a marine plant

2011 ◽  
Vol 423 ◽  
pp. 57-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Bricker ◽  
M Waycott ◽  
A Calladine ◽  
JC Zieman
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Marine Plant ◽  
High Connectivity

scholarly journals Phenotypic plasticity can reverse the relative extent of intra- and interspecific variability across a thermal gradient

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1953) ◽  
pp. 20210428
Author(s):  
Staffan Jacob ◽  
Delphine Legrand
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Thermal Gradient ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Intraspecific Variability ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Interspecific Variability ◽  
Ciliate Species ◽  
Relative Extent ◽  
Trait Variability

Intra- and interspecific variability can both ensure ecosystem functions. Generalizing the effects of individual and species assemblages requires understanding how much within and between species trait variation is genetically based or results from phenotypic plasticity. Phenotypic plasticity can indeed lead to rapid and important changes of trait distributions, and in turn community functionality, depending on environmental conditions, which raises a crucial question: could phenotypic plasticity modify the relative importance of intra- and interspecific variability along environmental gradients? We quantified the fundamental niche of five genotypes in monocultures for each of five ciliate species along a wide thermal gradient in standardized conditions to assess the importance of phenotypic plasticity for the level of intraspecific variability compared to differences between species. We showed that phenotypic plasticity strongly influences trait variability and reverses the relative extent of intra- and interspecific variability along the thermal gradient. Our results show that phenotypic plasticity may lead to either increase or decrease of functional trait variability along environmental gradients, making intra- and interspecific variability highly dynamic components of ecological systems.

scholarly journals Chromatin structure changes in Daphnia populations upon exposure to environmental cues – or – The discovery of Wolterecks “Matrix”

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronaldo de Carvalho Augusto ◽  
Aki Minoda ◽  
Oliver Rey ◽  
Céline Cosseau ◽  
Cristian Chaparro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Chromatin Structure ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Gene Mutations ◽  
Reaction Norms ◽  
Environmental Cues ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Open Chromatin ◽  
Norm Of Reaction ◽  
Structure Changes

AbstractPhenotypic plasticity is an important feature of biological systems that is likely to play a major role in the future adaptation of organisms to the ongoing global changes. It may allow an organism to produce alternative phenotypes in responses to environmental cues. Modifications in the phenotype can be reversible but are sometimes enduring and can even span over generations. The notion of phenotypic plasticity was conceptualized in the early 20th century by Richard Woltereck. He introduced the idea that the combined relations of a phenotypic character and all environmental gradients that influence on it can be defined as “norm of reaction”. Norms of reaction are specific to species and to lineages within species, and they are heritable. He postulated that reaction norms can progressively be shifted over generations depending on the environmental conditions. One of his biological models was the water-flee daphnia. Woltereck proposed that enduring phenotypic modifications and gene mutations could have similar adaptive effects, and he postulated that their molecular bases would be different. Mutations occurred in genes, while enduring modifications were based on something he called the Matrix. He suggested that this matrix (i) was associated with the chromosomes, (ii) that it was heritable, (iii) it changed during development of the organisms, and (iv) that changes of the matrix could be simple chemical substitutions of an unknown, but probably polymeric molecule. We reasoned that the chromatin has all postulated features of this matrix and revisited Woltereck’s classical experiments with daphnia. We developed a robust and rapid ATAC-seq technique that allows for analyzing chromatin of individual daphnia and show here (i) that this technique can be used with minimal expertise in molecular biology, and (ii) we used it to identify open chromatin structure in daphnia exposed to different environmental cues. Our result indicates that chromatin structure changes consistently in daphnia upon this exposure confirming Woltereck’s classical postulate.

scholarly journals Translating environmental gradients into discontinuous reaction norms via hormone signalling in a polyphenic butterfly

2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1706) ◽  
pp. 789-797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicencio Oostra ◽  
Maaike A. de Jong ◽  
Brandon M. Invergo ◽  
Fanja Kesbeke ◽  
Franziska Wende ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Hormonal Regulation ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Reaction Norms ◽  
Bicyclus Anynana ◽  
Linear Temperature ◽  
Linear Temperature Gradient ◽  
Adult Fitness ◽  
Hormone Signalling

Polyphenisms—the expression of discrete phenotypic morphs in response to environmental variation—are examples of phenotypic plasticity that may potentially be adaptive in the face of predictable environmental heterogeneity. In the butterfly Bicyclus anynana , we examine the hormonal regulation of phenotypic plasticity that involves divergent developmental trajectories into distinct adult morphs for a suite of traits as an adaptation to contrasting seasonal environments. This polyphenism is induced by temperature during development and mediated by ecdysteroid hormones. We reared larvae at separate temperatures spanning the natural range of seasonal environments and measured reaction norms for ecdysteroids, juvenile hormones (JHs) and adult fitness traits. Timing of peak ecdysteroid, but not JH titres, showed a binary response to the linear temperature gradient. Several adult traits (e.g. relative abdomen mass) responded in a similar, dimorphic manner, while others (e.g. wing pattern) showed a linear response. This study demonstrates that hormone dynamics can translate a linear environmental gradient into a discrete signal and, thus, that polyphenic differences between adult morphs can already be programmed at the stage of hormone signalling during development. The range of phenotypic responses observed within the suite of traits indicates both shared regulation and independent, trait-specific sensitivity to the hormone signal.

Multi-level phenotypic plasticity and the persistence of seagrasses along environmental gradients in a subtropical lagoon

2019 ◽  
Vol 157 ◽  
pp. 24-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Vivanco Bercovich ◽  
Nadine Schubert ◽  
Antonella C. Almeida Saá ◽  
João Silva ◽  
Paulo A. Horta
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Subtropical Lagoon

Phenotypic plasticity and gene diversity in Pistacia lentiscus L. along environmental gradients in Israel

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 777-785 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sagi Nahum ◽  
Moshe Inbar ◽  
Gidi Ne’eman ◽  
Rachel Ben-Shlomo
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Gene Diversity ◽  
Pistacia Lentiscus

Drivers of diversity gradients of a highly mobile marine assemblage in a mesoscale seascape

2020 ◽  
Vol 638 ◽  
pp. 149-164
Author(s):  
GM Svendsen ◽  
M Ocampo Reinaldo ◽  
MA Romero ◽  
G Williams ◽  
A Magurran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Regression Tree ◽  
Demersal Fish ◽  
Open Ocean ◽  
Shared Resources ◽  
Thermal Front ◽  
Boosted Regression Tree ◽  
Diversity Gradients ◽  
Α Diversity ◽  
Bottom Depth

With the unprecedented rate of biodiversity change in the world today, understanding how diversity gradients are maintained at mesoscales is a key challenge. Drawing on information provided by 3 comprehensive fishery surveys (conducted in different years but in the same season and with the same sampling design), we used boosted regression tree (BRT) models in order to relate spatial patterns of α-diversity in a demersal fish assemblage to environmental variables in the San Matias Gulf (Patagonia, Argentina). We found that, over a 4 yr period, persistent diversity gradients of species richness and probability of an interspecific encounter (PIE) were shaped by 3 main environmental gradients: bottom depth, connectivity with the open ocean, and proximity to a thermal front. The 2 main patterns we observed were: a monotonic increase in PIE with proximity to fronts, which had a stronger effect at greater depths; and an increase in PIE when closer to the open ocean (a ‘bay effect’ pattern). The originality of this work resides on the identification of high-resolution gradients in local, demersal assemblages driven by static and dynamic environmental gradients in a mesoscale seascape. The maintenance of environmental gradients, specifically those associated with shared resources and connectivity with an open system, may be key to understanding community stability.

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