Acid-base Review and Regulation

Within- and Trans-Generational Environmental Adaptation to Climate Change: Perspectives and New Challenges

“…Individual plastic responses to weather and climate events are expected to vary across developmental stages. Embryonic and larval stages are considered to be more sensitive to variable environmental conditions in comparison to adult stages, because of reduced plastic capacity (Burggren and Bautista, 2019;Dahlke et al, 2020). Inherent to early development is the progressive maturing of rudimentary morphological structures and physiological functions that allow organisms to regulate homeostatic disturbances (Figure 1B).…”

“…For instance, zebrafish embryos incubated up to hatching in colder or warmer temperatures, exhibited improved swimming performance as adults when exposed to temperatures resembling their temperature of incubation (Scott and Johnston, 2012). However, to date we still have poor understanding of the plastic capacities at the whole organismal level in developing organisms (e.g., thermal limits and tolerance ranges), as well as of the actual partitioning of their regulatory mechanisms in organ and systems (e.g., acid-base regulation), and the potential trade-offs with other traits, when facing environmental disturbances (West-Eberhard, 2003;Burggren and Bautista, 2019). This lack of knowledge mainly arises from the intrinsic complexity of studying the effects of climate change in tiny sized organisms, and the inherent technological challenge of developing and implementing reproducible techniques for such specialized measurements.…”