Plasticity and associated epigenetic mechanisms play a role in thermal evolution during range expansion.

ABSTRACT: Due to global change, many species are shifting their distribution and are thereby confronted with novel thermal conditions at the moving range edges. Especially during the initial phases of exposure to a new environment, it has been hypothesized that plasticity and associated epigenetic mechanisms enable species to cope with environmental change. We tested this idea by capitalizing on the well-documented southward range expansion of the damselfly Ischnura elegans from France into Spain where the species invaded warmer regions in the 1950s in eastern Spain (old edge region) and in the 2010s in central Spain (new edge region). Using a common garden experiment at rearing temperatures matching the ancestral and invaded thermal regimes, we tested for evolutionary changes in (thermal pla

SUBMITTER: Swaegers J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10872138 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature