Elevated temperatures drive the evolution of armour loss in the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus

0543010 - ÚBO 2022 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Smith, Carl - Zieba, G. - Przybylski, M.
Elevated temperatures drive the evolution of armour loss in the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus.
Functional Ecology. Roč. 35, č. 8 (2021), s. 1735-1744. ISSN 0269-8463. E-ISSN 1365-2435
Institutional support: RVO:68081766
Keywords : adaptation * body size * climate change * Gasterosteidae * intraspecific variation * scaling
OECD category: Ecology
Impact factor: 6.284, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Open access
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/1365-2435.13846

1. While there is evidence of genetic and phenotypic responses to climate change, few studies have demonstrated change in functional traits with a known genetic basis.
2. Here we present evidence for an evolutionary adaptive response to elevated temperatures in freshwater populations of the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus.
3. Using a unique set of historical data and museum specimens, in combination with contemporary samples, we fitted a Bayesian spatial model to identify a populationlevel decline in the number of lateral bony plates, comprising anti-predator armour, in multiple populations of sticklebacks over the last 91 years in Poland.
4. Armor loss was predicted by elevated temperatures and is proposed to be a correlated response to selection for reduced body size.
5. This study demonstrates a change in a functional trait of known genetic basis in response to elevated temperature, and illustrates the utility of the threespine stickleback as a model for measuring the evolutionary and ecological impacts of environmental change across the northern hemisphere.

Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0320324