BIBLIOS

Document type
Journal articles

Document subtype
Full paper

Title
No evidence for short-term evolutionary response to a warming environment in Drosophila

Participants in the publication
Marta A. Santos (Author)
cE3c/FCUL
Ana Carromeu-Santos (Author)
FACULDADE DE CIÊNCIAS DA UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA
Ana Sofia Quina (Author)
Dep. Biologia Animal
CESAM
Mauro Santos (Author)
cE3c/FCUL
Margarida Matos (Author)
cE3c/FCUL
Dep. Biologia Animal
Pedro Simões (Author)
Dep. Biologia Animal
cE3c

Summary
Adaptive evolution is key in mediating responses to global warming and may sometimes be the only solution for species to survive. Such evolution will expectedly lead to changes in the populations’ thermal reaction norm and improve their ability to cope with stressful conditions. Conversely, evolutionary constraints might limit the adaptive response. Here, we test these expectations by performing a real-time evolution experiment in historically differentiated Drosophila subobscura populations. We address the phenotypic change after nine generations of evolution in a daily fluctuating environment with average constant temperature, or in a warming environment with increasing average and amplitude temperature across generations. Our results showed that (1) evolution under a global warming scenario does not lead to a noticeable change in the thermal response; (2) historical background appears to be affecting responses under the warming environment, particularly at higher temperatures; and (3) thermal reaction norms are trait dependent: although lifelong exposure to low temperature decreases fecundity and productivity but not viability, high temperature causes negative transgenerational effects on productivity and viability, even with high fecundity. These findings in such an emblematic organism for thermal adaptation studies raise concerns about the short-term efficiency of adaptive responses to the current rising temperatures.

Editor(s)
Society for the Study of Evolution


Institution
FACULDADE DE CIÊNCIAS DA UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA

Where published
Evolution

Publication Identifiers
ISSN - 0014-3820

Address
Lisbon, Portugal

Publisher
Wiley



Document Identifiers
DOI - https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.14366
URL - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/evo.14366

Rankings
SCIMAGO Q1 (2021) - 1.56 - Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Web Of Science Q2 (2021) - 4.171 - Evolutionary Biology

Keywords
Drosophila experimental evolution global warming temperature thermal adaptation thermal fluctuations