Impact of global warming at the range margins: phenotypic plasticity and behavioral thermoregulation will buffer an endemic amphibian

Abstract

When dispersal is not an option to evade warming temperatures, compensation through behavior, plasticity, or evolutionary adaptation is essential to prevent extinction. In this work, we evaluated whether there is physiological plasticity in the thermal performance curve (TPC) of maximum jumping speed in individuals acclimated to current and projected temperatures and whether there is an opportunity for behavioral thermoregulation in the desert landscape where inhabits the northernmost population of the endemic frog Pleurodema thaul. Our results indicate that individuals acclimated to 20°C and 25°C increased the breath of their TPCs by shifting their upper limits with respect to when they were acclimated at 10°C. In addition, even when dispersal is not possible for this population, the landscape is heterogeneous enough to offer opportunities for behavioral thermoregulation. In particular, under current climatic conditions, behavioral thermoregulation is not compulsory as available operative temperatures are encompassed within the population TPC limits. However, for severe projected temperatures under climate change, behavioral thermoregulation will be required in the sunny patches. In overall, our results suggest that this population of Pleurodema thaul will be able to endure the worst projected scenario of climate warming as it has not only the physiological capacities but also the environmental opportunities to regulate its body temperature behaviorally.

Natural selection on plasticity of thermal traits in a highly seasonal environment

“…Our results are in (partial) agreement with that expectation, as the rate at which survival changed with changes in Q 10 was very small (Table ), although the models with Q 10 still showed some support (Table ). Finally, we also expected no directional selection on T Pref as we have previously shown that acclimation to warmer temperatures produced an increase in this trait (Ruiz‐Aravena et al, ). Nevertheless, we found a nonsignificant trend showing that survival decreased, although at a very low rate, as T Pref increased, which might suggest that selection favors those individuals that are able to avoid hot microhabitats.…”

“…However, in both cases, estimates were not statistically different from zero. Nevertheless, this might suggest that selection could be favoring individuals that avoid hot microhabitats, possibly by means of behavioral responses (Ruiz‐Aravena et al, ). Indeed, behavioral thermoregulation has been proposed as one key factor that prevents an evolutionary response to selection to raising temperatures (Buckley et al, ; Huey et al., ; Kearney, Shine, & Porter, ).…”

The multigenerational effects of water contamination and endocrine disrupting chemicals on the fitness of Drosophila melanogaster

“…Here, we evaluated the impact that dif- A major selective force in nature is exposure to environmental perturbations (Bijlsma & Loeschcke, 2005;Hoffmann & Hercus, 2000;Hoffmann & Parsons, 1991). Animals have evolved several strategies, from genetic (e.g., Alvarez, Espinoza, Inostroza B, & Arce, 2015;Hebbelmann et al, 2012;Lardies, Arias, & Bacigalupe, 2010;Silva, Bacigalupe, Luna-Rudloff, & Figueroa, 2012;Sørensen & Loeschcke, 2004), to physiological (e.g., Bozinovic, Catalán, & Kalergis, 2013;Castañeda et al, 2011;Chapin, Autumn, & Pugnaire, 2012;Hermes-Lima & Zenteno-Savìn, 2002;Uy, Leduc, Ganote, & Price, 2015) and behavioral (e.g., Kitaysky, Wingfield, & Piatt, 2001;Koolhaas et al, 1999;Ruiz-Aravena et al, 2014;Wingfield & Kitaysky, 2002) to deal with or avoid the effects of such stressors. Additionally, fitnessrelated traits are not an exception and are also affected by environmental stress (Bijlsma & Loeschcke, 2005).…”

Thermal ecological physiology of native and invasive frog species: do invaders perform better?

“…Previous evidence suggested that both CT min and CT max are highly flexible traits that respond to changes in temperature (Li et al ., 2009; Chanthy et al ., 2012; Ruiz-Aravena et al ., 2014; Davies et al ., 2015). As we mentioned above, there are higher inter-specific differences and variability in CT min , in comparison to CT max and T br , among X. laevis and C. gayi .…”