A collection of Australian Drosophila datasets on climate adaptation and species distributions

Abstract

The Australian Drosophila Ecology and Evolution Resource (ADEER) collates Australian datasets on drosophilid flies, which are aimed at investigating questions around climate adaptation, species distribution limits and population genetics. Australian drosophilid species are diverse in climatic tolerance, geographic distribution and behaviour. Many species are restricted to the tropics, a few are temperate specialists, and some have broad distributions across climatic regions. Whereas some species show adaptability to climate changes through genetic and plastic changes, other species have limited adaptive capacity. This knowledge has been used to identify traits and genetic polymorphisms involved in climate change adaptation and build predictive models of responses to climate change. ADEER brings together 103 datasets from 39 studies published between 1982–2013 in a single online resource. All datasets can be downloaded freely in full, along with maps and other visualisations. These historical datasets are preserved for future studies, which will be especially useful for assessing climate-related changes over time.

Incorporating evolutionary adaptation in species distribution modelling reduces projected vulnerability to climate change

“…), which can be informed either directly by empirical studies (Hangartner et al . ) or indirectly using the wide variety of trait and phylogenetic data sources now available for many species (Jarošík et al . ; Kellermann et al .…”

“…Many species, particularly those that have short generations, could have substantial capacity to adapt under climate change and therefore previous estimates of sensitivity may have been overestimated. Here, we have applied a new, and relatively simple, framework to characterise niche limits and adaptive capacity (Catullo et al 2015), which can be informed either directly by empirical studies (Hangartner et al 2015) or indirectly using the wide variety of trait and phylogenetic data sources now available for many species (Jaro s ık et al 2011; Kellermann et al 2012). In coming years, genomics will increase our ability to identify distinct lineages, detect gene flow, characterise patterns of adaptation across landscapes and quantify levels of genetic variation relevant to adaptive capacity under climate change Hoffmann et al 2015).…”

A resource on latitudinal and altitudinal clines of ecologically relevant phenotypes of the Indian Drosophila

“…A resource for Australian drosophilids already exists 36 . A cross geographical comparison could be used to explore fundamental and unaddressed questions in Drosophila ecology and evolution.…”

Genetic covariances promote climatic adaptation in AustralianDrosophila*

“…Here, we examine phenotypic divergence and the stability of G (including its sex-specific submatrices, G m , G f , and B) for wing size and climatic stress-resistance traits (desiccation resistance, cold recovery time, and heat knockdown time) in Drosophila melanogaster populations that have locally adapted to climatic selection along a latitudinal cline. Australian Drosophila populations have played a key role in studies of climatic adaptation, repeatedly exhibiting genetically based clinal divergence in body size and thermal stress traits, despite strong gene flow across the cline (Kennington et al 2003;Hoffmann and Weeks 2007;Sgrò et al 2010;Hangartner et al 2015;Lasne et al 2018). Although desiccation resistance has shown less consistent clinal divergence than our other focal traits (Hoffmann et al 2001;Lasne et al 2018), studies conducted since The Millenial Drought (1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) have reported elevated desiccation resistance in temperate populations from southeastern Australia, where desiccation stresses have been particularly intense (Lasne et al, 2018(Lasne et al, , 2019; the current study).…”