Tonione Maria Adelena, Cho So Mi, Richmond Gary, Irian Christian, Tsutsui Neil Durie
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management University of California-Berkeley Berkeley CA USA.
Present address: Department of Preventive Medicine Yonsei University College of Medicine Seoul Korea.
Ecol Evol. 2020 Apr 8;10(11):4749-4761. doi: 10.1002/ece3.6229. eCollection 2020 Jun.
Thermal phenotypic plasticity, otherwise known as acclimation, plays an essential role in how organisms respond to short-term temperature changes. Plasticity buffers the impact of harmful temperature changes; therefore, understanding variation in plasticity in natural populations is crucial for understanding how species will respond to the changing climate. However, very few studies have examined patterns of phenotypic plasticity among populations, especially among ant populations. Considering that this intraspecies variation can provide insight into adaptive variation in populations, the goal of this study was to quantify the short-term acclimation ability and thermal tolerance of several populations of the winter ant, . We tested for correlations between thermal plasticity and thermal tolerance, elevation, and body size. We characterized the thermal environment both above and below ground for several populations distributed across different elevations within California, USA. In addition, we measured the short-term acclimation ability and thermal tolerance of those populations. To measure thermal tolerance, we used chill-coma recovery time (CCRT) and knockdown time as indicators of cold and heat tolerance, respectively. Short-term phenotypic plasticity was assessed by calculating acclimation capacity using CCRT and knockdown time after exposure to both high and low temperatures. We found that several populations displayed different chill-coma recovery times and a few displayed different heat knockdown times, and that the acclimation capacities of cold and heat tolerance differed among most populations. The high-elevation populations displayed increased tolerance to the cold (faster CCRT) and greater plasticity. For high-temperature tolerance, we found heat tolerance was not associated with altitude; instead, greater tolerance to the heat was correlated with increased plasticity at higher temperatures. These current findings provide insight into thermal adaptation and factors that contribute to phenotypic diversity by revealing physiological variance among populations.
热表型可塑性，也称为驯化，在生物体对短期温度变化的反应方式中起着至关重要的作用。可塑性缓冲了有害温度变化的影响；因此，了解自然种群中可塑性的变化对于理解物种将如何应对气候变化至关重要。然而，很少有研究考察种群间的表型可塑性模式，尤其是蚂蚁种群之间。鉴于这种种内变异可以为种群的适应性变异提供见解，本研究的目的是量化冬季蚁几个种群的短期驯化能力和耐热性。我们测试了热可塑性与耐热性、海拔和体型之间的相关性。我们描述了分布在美国加利福尼亚州不同海拔的几个种群地上和地下的热环境。此外，我们测量了这些种群的短期驯化能力和耐热性。为了测量耐热性，我们分别使用冷昏迷恢复时间（CCRT）和击倒时间作为耐寒性和耐热性的指标。通过在暴露于高温和低温后使用CCRT和击倒时间计算驯化能力来评估短期表型可塑性。我们发现几个种群表现出不同的冷昏迷恢复时间，少数种群表现出不同的热击倒时间，并且大多数种群的耐寒性和耐热性的驯化能力不同。高海拔种群表现出对寒冷的耐受性增加（更快的CCRT）和更大的可塑性。对于高温耐受性，我们发现耐热性与海拔无关；相反，更高的耐热性与更高温度下增加的可塑性相关。这些当前的发现通过揭示种群间的生理差异，为热适应和导致表型多样性的因素提供了见解。
