How do phenology, plasticity, and evolution determine the fitness consequences of climate change for montane butterflies?

ABSTRACT: Species have responded to climate change via seasonal (phenological) shifts, morphological plasticity, and evolutionary adaptation, but how these responses contribute to changes and variation in population fitness are poorly understood. We assess the interactions and relative importance of these responses for fitness in a montane butterfly, Colias eriphyle, along an elevational gradient. Because environmental temperatures affect developmental rates of each life stage, populations along the gradients differ in phenological timing and the number of generations each year. Our focal phenotype, wing solar absorptivity of adult butterflies, exhibits local adaptation across elevation and responds plastically to developmental temperatures. We integrate climatic data for the past half-centur

SUBMITTER: Kingsolver JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6099808 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature