Dissertation Research: Morphometric Reaction Norms Across Precipitation and Temperature Variability Gradients

[9423446]莫兰：众所周知，即使生物体的潜在遗传组成是相同的，生物体的特征也会因不同的环境条件而发生变化。这种对不同环境条件作出反应的能力被称为表型可塑性。最近的理论研究表明，表型可塑性作为一种应对环境变异性的进化机制，在可变环境中受到自然选择的青睐。因此，表型可塑性可能在广义上影响进化变化和生物多样性。本研究的目的是通过比较降水和温度变化梯度的形态表型可塑性水平，对理论模型的预测结果进行实证检验。这可以增加我们对进化变化中表型可塑性重要性的理解。此外，这项研究可能有助于保护生物学家了解环境变化对种群的影响，因为这些影响部分取决于它们的表型可塑性水平。研究物种是白斑翅蚱蜢（Trimerotropis pallidipennis），在暴发年份被认为是一种农业害虫。了解环境对这一物种遗传的重要性可能有助于我们理解昆虫爆发的进化。

9423446 MORAN It is well established that a character of an organism can chanee in response to different environmental conditions, even though the underlying genetic composition of the organism is the same. This ability to respond to different environmental condition is termed phenotypic plasticity. Recent theoretical work suggests that phenotypic plasticity is favored by natural selection in variable environments as an evolutionary mechanism for coping with environmental variability. As such, phenotypic plasticity may affect evolutionary change and biodiversity in the broad sense. The purpose of this study is to test empirically the prediction made by the theoretical models, by comparing the levels of morphological phenotypic plasticity along precipitation and temperature variability gradients. This can increase our understanding of the importance of phenotypic plasticity in evolutionary change. In addition, this study may help conservation biologists understand the effects of environmental change on populations, as these are determined in part by their level of phenotypic plasticity. The study species, the pallid-wing grasshopper (Trimerotropis pallidipennis), is considered an agricultural pest in outbreak years. Knowledge of the importance of the environment on the genetics of this species may help us understand the evolution of insect outbreaks.