Phenotypic plasticity of life-history traits of a calanoid copepod in a tropical lake: Is the magnitude of thermal plasticity related to thermal variability?

ABSTRACT: According to the Climatic Variability Hypothesis [CVH], thermal plasticity should be wider in organisms from temperate environments, but is unlikely to occur in tropical latitudes where temperature fluctuations are narrow. In copepods, food availability has been suggested as the main driver of phenotypic variability in adult size if the range of temperature change is less than 14°C. Leptodiaptomus garciai is a calanoid copepod inhabiting Lake Alchichica, a monomictic, tropical lake in Mexico that experiences regular, narrow temperature fluctuations but wide changes in phytoplankton availability. We investigated whether the seasonal fluctuations of temperature and food produce phenotypic variation in the life-history traits of this tropical species. We sampled L. garciai throughout a year a

SUBMITTER: Ortega-Mayagoitia E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5927456 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature