Schmidt Elliott, Donelson Jennifer M
College of Science and Engineering and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, 4811, Australia.
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.
Conserv Physiol. 2024 Aug 13;12(1):coae058. doi: 10.1093/conphys/coae058. eCollection 2024.
How species respond to climate change will depend on the collective response of populations. Intraspecific variation in traits, evolved through genetic adaptation and phenotypic plasticity, can cause thermal performance curves to vary over species' distributions. Intraspecific variation within marine species has received relatively little attention due to the belief that marine systems lack dispersal barriers strong enough to promote locally adapted traits. Here we show that intraspecific variation is present between low- and high-latitude populations of a coral reef damselfish (). Co-gradient variation was observed when examining aerobic physiology across a thermal gradient that reflected mean summer temperatures of high- and low-latitude regions, as well as projected future ocean temperatures (i.e. 27, 28.5, 30, 31.5°C). Whilst thermally sensitive, no significant differences were observed between high- and low-latitude regions when measuring immunocompetence, haematocrit and anaerobic enzyme activity. The presence of co-gradient variation suggests that dispersal limitations in marine systems can promote local adaptive responses; however, intraspecific variation may not be ubiquitous amongst traits. Identifying locally adapted traits amongst populations remains necessary to accurately project species responses to climate change and identify differences in adaptive potential.
物种对气候变化的响应将取决于种群的集体反应。通过遗传适应和表型可塑性进化而来的种内性状变异，会导致热性能曲线在物种分布范围内发生变化。由于人们认为海洋系统缺乏足够强大的扩散障碍来促进局部适应性状，海洋物种的种内变异受到的关注相对较少。在这里，我们表明，在一种珊瑚礁雀鲷（ ）的低纬度和高纬度种群之间存在种内变异。在跨反映高纬度和低纬度地区夏季平均温度以及预计未来海洋温度（即27、28.5、30、31.5°C）的热梯度检查有氧生理学时，观察到了共梯度变异。虽然对热敏感，但在测量免疫能力、血细胞比容和厌氧酶活性时，高纬度和低纬度地区之间未观察到显著差异。共梯度变异的存在表明，海洋系统中的扩散限制可以促进局部适应性反应；然而，种内变异可能并非在所有性状中都普遍存在。识别种群之间的局部适应性状对于准确预测物种对气候变化的反应以及识别适应潜力的差异仍然是必要的。
