Experimental evidence for adaptive divergence in response to a warmed habitat reveals roles for morphology, allometry and parasite resistance.

ABSTRACT: Ectotherms are expected to be particularly vulnerable to climate change-driven increases in temperature. Understanding how populations adapt to novel thermal environments will be key for informing mitigation plans. We took advantage of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) populations inhabiting adjacent geothermal (warm) and ambient (cold) habitats to test for adaptive evolutionary divergence using a field reciprocal transplant experiment. We found evidence for adaptive morphological divergence, as growth (length change) in non-native habitats related to head, posterior and total body shape. Higher growth in fish transplanted to a non-native habitat was associated with morphological shape closer to native fish. The consequences of transplantation were asymmetric with cold

SUBMITTER: Smith BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10850817 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature