TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring physiological plasticity and local thermal adaptation in an intertidal crab along a latitudinal cline
AU - Gaitán-Espitia, Juan Diego
AU - Bacigalupe, Leonardo D.
AU - Opitz, Tania
AU - Lagos, Nelson A.
AU - Osores, Sebastián
AU - Lardies, Marco A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank Luis Prado for his help with animal collection. Additionally, we thank Dr Marcin Czarnoleski and the two anonymous reviewers, for providing valuable comments on this manuscript. All experiments were conducted according to current Chilean law. This study was partially supported by the FONDECYT grants 1110743 and 1140092 and the Millennium Nucleus Project NC 1200286 ‘Center for the study of multiple drivers on marine socio-ecological systems (MUSELS)’ from the Ministerio de Economía, Fomento y Turismo to MAL and FONDECYT grant 1140938 to NAL. JDGE was supported by FONDECYT-Postdoctoral grant no. 3130381.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/8
Y1 - 2017/8
N2 - Intertidal organisms have evolved physiological mechanisms that enable them to maintain performance and survive during periods of severe environmental stress with temperatures close to their tolerance limits. The level of these adaptive responses in thermal physiology can vary among populations of broadly distributed species depending on their particular environmental context and genetic backgrounds. Here we examined thermal performances and reaction norms for metabolic rate (MR) and heart rate (HR) of seven populations of the porcelanid crab Petrolisthes violaceus from markedly different thermal environments across the latitudinal gradient of ~3000 km. Physiological responses of this intertidal crab under common-garden conditions suggest the absence of local thermal adaptation along the geographic gradient (i.e., lack of latitudinal compensation). Moreover, thermal physiological sensitivities and performances in response to increased temperatures evidenced the existence of some level of: i) metabolic rate control or depression during warm temperature exposures; and ii) homeostasis/canalization (i.e., absence or low levels of plasticity) in physiological traits that may reflect some sort of buffering mechanism in most of the populations. Nevertheless, our results indicate that elevated temperatures can reduce cardiac function but not metabolic rate in high latitude crabs. The lack of congruence between HR and MR supports the idea that energy metabolism in marine invertebrates cannot be inferred from HR and different conclusions regarding geographic differentiation in energy metabolism can be obtained from both physiological traits. Integrating thermal physiology and species range extent can contribute to a better understanding of the likely effects of climate change on natural populations of marine ectotherms.
AB - Intertidal organisms have evolved physiological mechanisms that enable them to maintain performance and survive during periods of severe environmental stress with temperatures close to their tolerance limits. The level of these adaptive responses in thermal physiology can vary among populations of broadly distributed species depending on their particular environmental context and genetic backgrounds. Here we examined thermal performances and reaction norms for metabolic rate (MR) and heart rate (HR) of seven populations of the porcelanid crab Petrolisthes violaceus from markedly different thermal environments across the latitudinal gradient of ~3000 km. Physiological responses of this intertidal crab under common-garden conditions suggest the absence of local thermal adaptation along the geographic gradient (i.e., lack of latitudinal compensation). Moreover, thermal physiological sensitivities and performances in response to increased temperatures evidenced the existence of some level of: i) metabolic rate control or depression during warm temperature exposures; and ii) homeostasis/canalization (i.e., absence or low levels of plasticity) in physiological traits that may reflect some sort of buffering mechanism in most of the populations. Nevertheless, our results indicate that elevated temperatures can reduce cardiac function but not metabolic rate in high latitude crabs. The lack of congruence between HR and MR supports the idea that energy metabolism in marine invertebrates cannot be inferred from HR and different conclusions regarding geographic differentiation in energy metabolism can be obtained from both physiological traits. Integrating thermal physiology and species range extent can contribute to a better understanding of the likely effects of climate change on natural populations of marine ectotherms.
KW - Genotype x environment
KW - Geographic variation
KW - Heart beat
KW - Metabolism
KW - Physiological flexibility
KW - Reaction norm
KW - Thermo-tolerance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85014080777&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2017.02.011
DO - 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2017.02.011
M3 - Article
C2 - 28689716
AN - SCOPUS:85014080777
SN - 0306-4565
VL - 68
SP - 14
EP - 20
JO - Journal of Thermal Biology
JF - Journal of Thermal Biology
ER -