Thermal reaction norms can surmount evolutionary constraints: comparative evidence across leaf beetle species

Abstract

One of the leitmotifs of the ecophysiological research on ectotherms is the variation and evolution of thermal reaction norms for biological rates. This long‐standing issue is crucial both for our understanding of life‐history diversification and for predicting the phenology of economically important species. A number of properties of the organism's thermal phenotype have been identified as potential constraints on the evolution of the rate–temperature relationship. This comparative study addresses several such constraints by testing whether the actual interspecific variation of thermal reaction norms across nearly hundred leaf beetle species agrees with the expected patterns. The results show that developmental rate and its temperature‐dependent parameters are similar in closely related species and that the variation pattern depends on the taxonomic scale, the thermal reaction norms being mostly parallel for the representatives of distant subclades but intersecting more often farther down the phylogenetic tree. The parallel shift disagrees with the putative ubiquity of a positive slope–threshold relationship, whereby thermal reaction norms should normally intersect, and even more contradicts with the common‐intersection hypothesis. The ability to develop in cooler conditions is not traded off at higher temperatures, which is an exception to the “warmer is better” principle. A comparison of high‐ and low‐quality data indicates that some of these discrepancies with earlier findings may stem from a likely presence of noise in previous analyses, which may have affected the variation patterns observed. Overall, the failure to support the universality of the predicted patterns suggests that the evolution of thermal reaction norms in leaf beetles has largely overcome the hypothesized constraints.

Rapid thermal adaptation in a marine diatom reveals constraints and trade‐offs

“…While recent studies showed that T opt and CT max increase after evolving at higher temperatures (Listmann et al, 2016), we do not know how the whole thermal reaction norm may evolve in phytoplankton; for example, adaptation to high temperatures may lead to a decrease in fitness at low temperatures, as previously observed in bacteria (Bennett & Lenski, 1993) and bacteriophages (Knies, Izem, Supler, Kingsolver, & Burch, 2006). Selection may change the slope and curvature (first and second derivatives) of the thermal reaction norm as well (Kutcherov, 2016), especially if some cardinal temperatures are more evolutionarily labile than others (Araújo et al, 2013).…”

“…While recent studies showed that T opt and CT max increase after evolving at higher temperatures (Listmann et al., ), we do not know how the whole thermal reaction norm may evolve in phytoplankton; for example, adaptation to high temperatures may lead to a decrease in fitness at low temperatures, as previously observed in bacteria (Bennett & Lenski, ) and bacteriophages (Knies, Izem, Supler, Kingsolver, & Burch, ). Selection may change the slope and curvature (first and second derivatives) of the thermal reaction norm as well (Kutcherov, ), especially if some cardinal temperatures are more evolutionarily labile than others (Araújo et al., ). For example, by comparing the peak sharpness at T opt and the width (°C) of the upper tail of the thermal reaction norm in cold‐ versus warm‐selected populations, we may make inferences regarding the evolutionary lability of the maximum growth rate at T opt ( μ opt ), and of T opt itself, relative to that of CT max ; the upward concavity below T opt and the location of the inflection point on the thermal reaction norm contribute greatly to the magnitude of trade‐offs between growth at temperatures below T opt versus above, which can be indicative of generalist‐specialist and/or resource allocation trade‐offs (Angilletta et al., ; Gilchrist, ).…”

Effects of Temperature and Photoperiod on the Immature Development in Cassida rubiginosa Müll. and C. stigmatica Sffr. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

“…nebulosa and G . graminea strongly depart from a linear relationship with temperature, which is not expected to occur in the non-stressful thermal range 16 . Data for C .…”

Metabolic rates of prokaryotic microbes may inevitably rise with global warming

“…The HiB hypothesis is also implicit in the universal temperature dependence concept of the Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE) 5,6,25 . However, whether the HiB hypothesis holds across organisms and environments is a question that is still debated 24,26,27 . Deviations from a HiB pattern would indicate that thermodynamic constraints are compensated for by other mechanisms.…”