The role of adaptation in determining resistance to climatic change in ecological communities

适应在决定生态群落对气候变化的抵抗力中的作用

• 批准号: NE/H015647/1
• 负责人: Raj Whitlock
• 金额: $ 41.39万
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2011 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FH015647%2F1
• 关键词: role; adaptation; determining; resistance; climatic

Man-made climate change poses a grave threat to the survival of plant and animal species. This is because each species has a particular preference or tolerance for the climate - an optimum climatic range suitable for survival and reproduction. Beyond this optimum, the individuals within species can survive if they migrate to other locations where the environment is more suitable or by making plastic adjustments to their physiology or morphology to suit the new conditions. However, phenotypic plasticity has limits, and many species won't be able to move quickly enough to escape climate change or will be trapped on islands of suitable habitat. In this case, the remaining option is in situ adaptation. This involves survival of the individuals in each population that are fittest (best adapted) under the new climate, and the inheritance of the traits conferring fitness through the genes that control them. This propensity for adaptation is important, because it tells us whether species will be able to offer long-term resistance to the effects of climate change in the places where they currently occur. While researchers have considered the effects of adaptation in individual species, they have not considered consequences of adaptation occurring within ecological communities. This broader perspective is crucial, since most species do not exist in isolation, but coexist with other species instead. Species occurring together in communities interact through competition for resources or through dependency on other species as food, prey or hosts. These links and connections between species might, for example, mean that adaptation to climate change in one species influences persistence or extinction in one or more other species in the community. If so, then our expectation of how biodiversity will respond to the climate is not based on sound foundations, and might differ substantially from what will actually occur. This large gap in knowledge leads me to want to answer three very fundamental questions in my project: (a) Are populations of different species within communities able to adapt to climate change? More specifically are the species that succeed under climate change the ones that have adapted? (b) What influence does success or failure of one species in the community (whether or not through adaptation) have on the performance of other interacting species and their persistence in the community? (c) What impact does non-climatic environmental variation have on the spatial distribution of the genetic diversity that controls adaptation to climate? In this project, I will investigate the mechanism driving the resistance of species-rich grassland communities to 16 years of simulated climate change in a unique climate change experiment. I will use a classical experimental design widely employed to identify adaptation - the reciprocal transplant experiment (RTE) - to determine whether species that have increased or decreased in abundance in response to the manipulations have also adapted to them. I will also use a novel modification to the RTE design, where entire microcosm communities are reciprocally transplanted, to dissect the impact of success or failure of species under climate change on other members of the community. Finally, I will use high throughput sequencing technology to identify the regions of plant genomes that likely control adaptation. Using this information I will investigate the impact of non-climatic environmental variability on the distribution of adaptive climate-related genetic diversity. The ultimate goal of the project is to facilitate a mechanistic understanding of the responses of grassland communities to environmental changes at the level of interacting individuals and their genes. This will result in a detailed knowledge of how humans impact on plant communities and how they might respond, such that we can better plan their management before decline occurs.

人为的气候变化对动植物物种的生存构成严重威胁。这是因为每个物种对气候都有特定的偏好或耐受性-适合生存和繁殖的最佳气候范围。超过这个最佳值，物种内的个体可以生存，如果他们迁移到其他地方，那里的环境更适合，或通过对他们的生理或形态进行可塑性调整，以适应新的条件。然而，表型可塑性是有限的，许多物种将无法快速移动以逃避气候变化，或者将被困在适合栖息地的岛屿上。在这种情况下，剩下的办法是就地调整。这涉及到每个种群中最适合（最适应）新气候的个体的生存，以及通过控制它们的基因赋予适应性的性状的遗传。这种适应的倾向很重要，因为它告诉我们物种是否能够在目前发生的地方对气候变化的影响提供长期抵抗力。虽然研究人员已经考虑了适应对单个物种的影响，但他们没有考虑适应在生态群落中发生的后果。这种更广泛的视角是至关重要的，因为大多数物种不是孤立存在的，而是与其他物种共存。在群落中共同出现的物种通过竞争资源或依赖其他物种作为食物、猎物或宿主而相互作用。例如，物种之间的这些联系可能意味着一个物种对气候变化的适应会影响到群落中一个或多个其他物种的持续存在或灭绝。如果是这样的话，那么我们对生物多样性将如何应对气候的预期就没有建立在坚实的基础上，而且可能与实际发生的情况有很大的不同。这一巨大的知识差距使我想在我的项目中回答三个非常基本的问题：（a）社区内不同物种的种群能够适应气候变化吗？更具体地说，在气候变化下成功的物种是适应了气候变化的物种吗？(b)一个物种在群落中的成功或失败（无论是否通过适应）对其他相互作用的物种的表现及其在群落中的持久性有什么影响？(c)非气候环境变化对控制气候适应的遗传多样性的空间分布有什么影响？在这个项目中，我将调查的机制，驱动物种丰富的草原群落的阻力，以16年的模拟气候变化在一个独特的气候变化实验。我将使用一个经典的实验设计，广泛用于识别适应-互惠移植实验（RTE）-以确定是否物种增加或减少的丰度，以应对操纵也适应他们。我还将对RTE设计进行一种新的修改，将整个微观世界的群落进行移植，以剖析气候变化下物种的成败对群落其他成员的影响。最后，我将使用高通量测序技术来确定可能控制适应的植物基因组区域。利用这些信息，我将调查非气候环境变异性对适应性气候相关的遗传多样性分布的影响。该项目的最终目标是促进对草原群落在相互作用的个体及其基因水平上对环境变化的反应的机械理解。这将导致详细了解人类如何影响植物群落以及它们如何应对，以便我们可以在衰退发生之前更好地规划它们的管理。

项目成果

Relationships between adaptive and neutral genetic diversity and ecological structure and functioning: a meta-analysis.

• DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.12240
• 发表时间: 2014-07
• 期刊: The Journal of ecology
• 作者: Whitlock R

Consequences of in-situ strategies for the conservation of plant genetic diversity

• DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.08.006
• 发表时间: 2016-11-01
• 期刊: BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
• 影响因子: 5.9
• 作者: Whitlock, R.;Hipperson, H.;Burke, T.
• 通讯作者: Burke, T.

Terrestrial biodiversity climate change impacts report card technical paper. 15. Implications of climate change for genetic diversity and evolvability in the UK

陆地生物多样性气候变化影响报告卡技术文件。

• 发表时间: 2013
• 作者: Neaves, L. E.

The fitness consequences of inbreeding in natural populations and their implications for species conservation - a systematic map

自然种群近亲繁殖的适应性后果及其对物种保护的影响 - 系统图

• DOI: 10.1186/s13750-015-0031-x
• 发表时间: 2015
• 期刊: Environmental Evidence
• 影响因子: 3.3
• 作者: Neaves L

Rapid genetic divergence in response to 15 years of simulated climate change.

• DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12966
• 发表时间: 2015-11
• 期刊: Global change biology
• 影响因子: 11.6
• 作者: Ravenscroft CH;Whitlock R;Fridley JD
• 通讯作者: Fridley JD