Rapid morphological change of a top predator with the invasion of a novel prey
Rapid morphological change of a top predator with the invasion of a novel prey
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/s41559-017-0378-1
复制
发表时间：
2018-01-01
影响因子：
16.8
通讯作者：
Kitchens, Wiley M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cattau, Christopher E.;Fletcher, Robert J., Jr.;Kitchens, Wiley M.
外来入侵物种正在迅速蔓延到整个星球。这些物种可能对生物多样性产生广泛的影响，但本地物种，特别是长寿脊椎动物，对入侵迅速作出反应的能力仍然是未知的。在这里，我们提供的证据表明，在整个北美范围内的濒危蜗牛风筝（Rostrhamus sociabilis）的快速形态变化与入侵的一种新的猎物，岛上的苹果蜗牛（福寿螺maculata），一个更大的同类风筝的本地猎物。在入侵后不到十年的时间里，蜗牛鸢的喙大小和身体质量大幅增加。更大的喙应该更适合从更大的蜗牛壳中提取肉，并且我们在幼年存活过程中检测到了对尺寸增加的强烈选择。使用系谱数据，我们发现了遗传和环境对性状表达的影响的证据，并发现添加剂的遗传变异在法案的大小增加与入侵。然而，预测育种值的趋势强调，最近的形态变化主要是由表型可塑性，而不是微进化的变化。我们的研究结果表明，进化的变化可能迫在眉睫，并强调即使是长寿的脊椎动物也可以对入侵物种迅速作出反应。此外，这些结果强调，表型可塑性可能提供了一个关键的作用，捕食者经历快速的环境变化。
Invasive exotic species are spreading rapidly throughout the planet. These species can have widespread impacts on biodiversity, yet the ability for native species, particularly long-lived vertebrates, to respond rapidly to invasions remains mostly unknown. Here we provide evidence of rapid morphological change in the endangered snail kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis) across its North American range with the invasion of a novel prey, the island apple snail (Pomacea maculata), a much larger congener of the kite's native prey. In less than one decade since invasion, snail kite bill size and body mass increased substantially. Larger bills should be better suited to extracting meat from the larger snail shells, and we detected strong selection on increased size through juvenile survival. Using pedigree data, we found evidence of both genetic and environmental influences on trait expression and discovered that additive genetic variation in bill size increased with invasion. However, trends in predicted breeding values emphasize that recent morphological changes have been driven primarily by phenotypic plasticity rather than micro-evolutionary change. Our findings suggest that evolutionary change may be imminent and underscore that even long-lived vertebrates can respond quickly to invasive species. Furthermore, these results highlight that phenotypic plasticity may provide a crucial role for predators experiencing rapid environmental change.