The role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins

Eriksson, Marie; Rafajlović, Marina

doi:10.1098/rstb.2021.0012

Cited by 22 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 106 publications

(158 reference statements)

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“…This assumption is supported by a recent study that explores inter and intraspecific variation of cuticular hydrocarbons (which determine the waterproofing capacity of the cuticle) in Enochrus species (Botella-Cruz et al, 2019). Furthermore, it has been suggested that physiological plasticity (Terblanche & Hoffmann, 2020), and plastic desiccation responses in particular (Kellermann et al, 2020), might have a limited impact on species distributions, perhaps due to its associated fitness costs (Eriksson & Rafajlović, 2022).…”

Section: Non-aridity-relatedmentioning

confidence: 89%

Lack of congruence between fundamental and realised aridity niche in a lineage of water beetles

et al. 2022

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1. Coping with aridity is a physiological challenge for all organisms, including freshwater ones. Aridity shapes distributions of aquatic species at fine and large geographical scales. Specifically, for aquatic beetles, the desiccation resistance of the adults is a potential constraint for the colonisation of arid regions.2. We assessed the congruence between the fundamental and realised aridity niche in eight species of a Palearctic lineage of water beetles (subgenus Lumetus, genus Enochrus, family Hydrophilidae). We also estimated the relative explanatory capacity of aridity-related versus other environmental variables in species distributions.3. Most of the species, even those most sensitive to desiccation stress in laboratory experiments, occur in areas with high aridity within the Palearctic region.Our results suggest a lack of association between the physiological (desiccation resistance) and environmental distance matrix (realised aridity niche), or between either of these and phylogenetic distances. Aridity-related variables had generally a similar explanatory capacity in explaining the distribution of species than non-related ones. 4. Our results indicate that desiccation resistance has not been an important physiological constraint for the colonisation of arid environments by this clade and suggest that other non-physiological factors are more important in shaping their distributions along aridity gradients. The studied beetle lineage might conserve a high basal desiccation resistance from relatively recent terrestrial ancestors, which could have provided a physiological advantage for the colonisation of arid areas. Further research could shed light on whether these unexpected results are common to other groups of aquatic insects living in arid areas or are particular to this group of beetles.

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Section: Non-aridity-relatedmentioning

confidence: 89%

Lack of congruence between fundamental and realised aridity niche in a lineage of water beetles

et al. 2022

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“…Plasticity can extend the range of environments allowing population persistence and thereby facilitate range expansion—another indirect evolutionary consequence of temporal variation. Erikkson & Rafajlović explore this interplay between temporal variation and the evolution of plasticity at range margins [ 75 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal variation may have diverse impacts on range limits

Holt

Barfield

Peniston

2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Environmental fluctuations are pervasive in nature, but the influence of non-directional temporal variation on range limits has received scant attention. We synthesize insights from the literature and use simple models to make conceptual points about the potentially wide range of ecological and evolutionary effects of temporal variation on range limits. Because organisms respond nonlinearly to environmental conditions, temporal variation can directionally alter long-term growth rates, either to shrink or to expand ranges. We illustrate this diversity of outcomes with a model of competition along a mortality gradient. Temporal variation can permit transitions between alternative states, potentially facilitating range expansion. We show this for variation in dispersal, using simple source–sink population models (with strong Allee effects, or with gene flow hampering local adaptation). Temporal variation enhances extinction risk owing to demographic stochasticity, rare events, and loss of genetic variation, all tending to shrink ranges. However, specific adaptations to exploit variation (including dispersal) may permit larger ranges than in similar but constant environments. Grappling with temporal variation is essential both to understand eco-evolutionary dynamics at range limits and to guide conservation and management strategies. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Species’ ranges in the face of changing environments (Part II)’.

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“…In the model, the fitness of individual k in deme i in generation τ was assumed to depend on the phenotype of the individual, the locally optimal phenotype ( θ ( i ) ), the local population size and (potentially costly) plasticity (Eriksson & Rafajlović, 2022): In equation (2), the term stands for the relative reduction in fitness due to the direct cost of plasticity, i.e., it does not include any fitness reduction due to potential maladaptive plasticity (hereafter this term is referred to as the cost-related function). The effect of maladaptive plasticity on fitness is accounted for by the last term of equation (2).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive, maladaptive, neutral, or absent plasticity: Hidden caveats of reaction norms

Eriksson

Kinnby

Wit

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Adaptive phenotypic plasticity may improve the response of individuals when faced with new environmental conditions. Typically, empirical evidence for plasticity is based on phenotypic reaction norms obtained in reciprocal transplant experiments. In such experiments, individuals from their native environment are transplanted into a different environment, and a number of trait values, potentially implicated in individuals' response to the new environment, are measured. However, the interpretations of reaction norms may differ depending on the nature of the assessed traits, which may not be known beforehand. For example, for traits that contribute to local adaptation, adaptive plasticity implies non-zero slopes of reaction norms. By contrast, for traits that are correlated to fitness, high tolerance to different environments (possibly due to adaptive plasticity in traits that contribute to adaptation) may, instead, imply flat reaction norms. Here we investigate the shape of reaction norms for adaptive versus fitness-correlated traits, and how they may affect the conclusions regarding the contribution of plasticity. To this end, we first simulate range expansion along an environmental gradient where plasticity evolves to different values locally and then perform reciprocal transplant experiments in silico. We show that reaction norms alone cannot inform us whether the assessed trait exhibits locally adaptive, maladaptive, neutral or no plasticity, without any additional knowledge of the traits assessed and species' biology. We use the insights from the model to analyse and interpret empirical data from reciprocal transplant experiments involving the marine isopod Idotea balthica sampled from two environments with different salinities, concluding that the low-salinity population likely has reduced adaptive plasticity relative to the high-salinity population. Overall, we conclude that, when interpreting results from reciprocal transplant experiments, it is necessary to consider whether traits assessed are locally adaptive with respect to the environmental variable accounted for in the experiments, or correlated to fitness.

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The role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins

Cited by 22 publications

References 106 publications

Lack of congruence between fundamental and realised aridity niche in a lineage of water beetles

Lack of congruence between fundamental and realised aridity niche in a lineage of water beetles

Temporal variation may have diverse impacts on range limits

Adaptive, maladaptive, neutral, or absent plasticity: Hidden caveats of reaction norms

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