Thermal plasticity in postembryonic life history traits of a widely distributed Collembola: Effects of macroclimate and microhabitat on genotypic differences

Abstract

Life history traits in many ectotherms show complex patterns of variation among conspecific populations sampled along wide latitudinal or climatic gradients. However, few studies have assessed whether these patterns can be explained better by thermal reaction norms of multiple life history traits, covering major aspects of the life cycle. In this study, we compared five populations of a Holarctic, numerically dominant soil microarthropod species, Folsomia quadrioculata, sampled from a wide latitudinal gradient (56–81°N), for growth, development, fecundity, and survival across four temperatures (10, 15, 20, and 25°C) in common garden experiments. We evaluated the extent to which macroclimate could explain differences in thermal adaptation and life history strategies among populations. The common garden experiments revealed large genotypic differences among populations in all the traits, which were little explained by latitude and macroclimate. In addition, the life history strategies (traits combined) hardly revealed any systematic difference related to latitude and macroclimate. The overall performance of the northernmost population from the most stochastic microclimate and the southernmost population, which remains active throughout the year, was least sensitive to the temperature treatments. In contrast, performance of the population from the most predictable microclimate peaked within a narrow temperature range (around 15°C). Our findings revealed limited support for macroclimate‐based predictions, and indicated that local soil habitat conditions related to predictability and seasonality might have considerable influence on the evolution of life history strategies of F. quadrioculata. This study highlights the need to combine knowledge on microhabitat characteristics, and demography, with findings from common garden experiments, for identifying the key drivers of life history evolution across large spatial scales, and wide climate gradients. We believe that similar approaches may substantially improve the understanding of adaptation in many terrestrial ectotherms with low dispersal ability.

A Multiple Life‐History Trait–Based and Time‐Resolved Assessment of Imidacloprid Effects and Recovery in the Widely Distributed Collembolan Folsomia quadrioculata

“…Folsomia quadrioculata was extracted without heating in 2007 from randomly collected soil samples from the small northernmost island of Svalbard, Norway (Little Slate Island; 80.321°N, 20.360°E). This population belongs to a presumably highly pristine environment, and its life-history traits have been studied in detail previously (Sengupta et al 2016(Sengupta et al , 2017. The animals were reared in small plastic boxes (diameter 3.4 cm, height 3 cm) with a moist base made of plaster of Paris and charcoal (Sengupta et al 2016).…”

“…Folsomia quadrioculata (Tullberg 1871) is a widely distributed collembolan, which is abundant in diverse habitat types across the northern hemisphere (Fjellberg 1994;Deharveng and Lek 1995;Ponge 2000). It reproduces sexually, and populations from different geographical regions and habitat types are known to differ in terms of thermal adaptation in several life-history traits (Sengupta et al 2016(Sengupta et al , 2017. The temperature responses of F. quadrioculata populations suggest that an assessment of responses in multiple traits is essential for providing ecologically accurate explanations.…”

Thermal plasticity in the invasive south American tomato pinworm Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae)

“…Phenotypic plasticity can be adaptive and has been reported to improve survival in Lepidoptera (Stotter and Terblanche, 2009;Chidawanyika and Terblanche, 2011a;Fischer et al, 2010;Mutamiswa et al, 2018a), Diptera (Overgaard and Sørensen, 2008;Kalosaka et al, 2009;, Coleoptera (Chidawanyika et al, 2017;Nyamukondiwa et al, 2018) and related taxon e.g. Collembola (see Chown et al, 2007;Sengupta et al, 2017). Studies have also shown that phenotypic plasticity varies across ontogeny (Marais and Chown, 2008) and that immobile stages generally have inherent higher plasticity to compensate for their inability to behaviorally adapt through seeking benign microhabitats.…”

Age and level of self‐organization affect the small‐scale distribution of springtails (Collembola)

“…Adults reproduce throughout the season whenever temperature permits (Sengupta et al. ). In the Arctic, the life cycle typically extends over more than one year (Birkemoe and Sømme ), and in heterogeneous habitats, it may show strongly aggregated distribution (Hertzberg et al.…”

“…It is a typical litter-dwelling (hemiedaphic) drought-sensitive species (Hertzberg and Leinaas 1998) and shows limited ability to move across open surfaces (Hertzberg et al 1994). Adults reproduce throughout the season whenever temperature permits (Sengupta et al 2017). In the Arctic, the life cycle typically extends over more than one year (Birkemoe and Sømme 1998), and in heterogeneous habitats, it may show strongly aggregated distribution (Hertzberg et al 1994).…”