Zoological Institute and Museum, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Insect Sci. 2018 Oct;25(5):894-904. doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.12456. Epub 2017 Jun 9.
Ongoing climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. However, although many species clearly suffer from ongoing climate change, others benefit from it, for example, by showing range expansions. However, which specific features determine a species' vulnerability to climate change? Phenotypic plasticity, which has been described as the first line of defence against environmental change, may be of utmost importance here. Against this background, we here compare plasticity in stress tolerance in 3 copper butterfly species, which differ arguably in their vulnerability to climate change. Specifically, we investigated heat, cold and desiccation resistance after acclimatization to different temperatures in the adult stage. We demonstrate that acclimation at a higher temperature increased heat but decreased cold tolerance and desiccation resistance. Contrary to our predictions, species did not show pronounced variation in stress resistance, though plastic capacities in temperature stress resistance did vary across species. Overall, our results seemed to reflect population-rather than species-specific patterns. We conclude that the geographical origin of the populations used should be considered even in comparative studies. However, our results suggest that, in the 3 species studied here, vulnerability to climate change is not in the first place determined by stress resistance in the adult stage. As entomological studies focus all too often on adults only, we argue that more research effort should be dedicated to other developmental stages when trying to understand insect responses to environmental change.
持续的气候变化是生物多样性面临的主要威胁。然而，尽管许多物种显然受到持续气候变化的影响，但其他物种也从中受益，例如，通过表现出范围扩大。然而，哪些特定特征决定了一个物种对气候变化的脆弱性？表型可塑性，它被描述为应对环境变化的第一道防线，在这里可能至关重要。在此背景下，我们比较了 3 种铜蝴蝶物种在成年期适应不同温度后的应激耐受能力的可塑性。具体而言，我们研究了热、冷和干旱胁迫后的耐受性。我们证明，在较高温度下的驯化会增加耐热性，但降低耐寒性和耐旱性。与我们的预测相反，尽管物种之间的温度应激抵抗能力的可塑性存在差异，但物种在应激抵抗能力方面并没有表现出明显的差异。总体而言，我们的结果似乎反映了种群而非物种特异性的模式。我们得出结论，即使在比较研究中，也应考虑种群的地理起源。然而，我们的研究结果表明，在研究的 3 个物种中，对气候变化的脆弱性首先不是由成年阶段的应激抵抗能力决定的。由于昆虫学研究往往只关注成虫，我们认为，在试图了解昆虫对环境变化的反应时，应该投入更多的研究精力到其他发育阶段。
