Evolution of aquatic insect behaviours across a gradient of disturbance predictability.

ABSTRACT: Natural disturbance regimes--cycles of fire, flood, drought or other events--range from highly predictable (disturbances occur regularly in time or in concert with a proximate cue) to highly unpredictable. While theory predicts how populations should evolve under different degrees of disturbance predictability, there is little empirical evidence of how this occurs in nature. Here, we demonstrate local adaptation in populations of an aquatic insect occupying sites along a natural gradient of disturbance predictability, where predictability was defined as the ability of a proximate cue (rainfall) to signal a disturbance (flash flood). In controlled behavioural experiments, populations from predictable environments responded to rainfall events by quickly exiting the water and moving sufficien

SUBMITTER: Lytle DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2596821 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature