Increasing temperature weakens the positive effect of genetic diversity on population growth.

ABSTRACT: Genetic diversity and temperature increases associated with global climate change are known to independently influence population growth and extinction risk. Whether increasing temperature may influence the effect of genetic diversity on population growth, however, is not known. We address this issue in the model protist system Tetrahymena thermophila. We test the hypothesis that at temperatures closer to the species' thermal optimum (i.e., the temperature at which population growth is maximal, or T _opt), genetic diversity should have a weaker effect on population growth compared to temperatures away from the thermal optimum. To do so, we grew populations of T. thermophila with varying levels of genetic diversity at increasingly warmer temperatures an

SUBMITTER: Singleton AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8717318 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature