How do animals adapt to stressful environments? Consequences for species interactions and extinction risk

动物生活在越来越多变的环境中，那里的条件可以迅速变化。在环境变化可预测的情况下，例如温度和降水的季节性变化，动物会适应这种变化。然而，日益成为气候变化特征的不可预测、突然或极端的环境变化可能对物种产生深远的影响。那些无法迁移或适应环境的物种面临着越来越大的灭绝风险，因此了解一些动物如何适应环境的快速变化，而另一些则不能，是生态学、进化论和保护生物学的一个关键问题。有充分的证据表明，个别物种已经适应了最近的环境变化，但它们将如何应对未来的变化尚不清楚。此外，特别值得关注的是营养相互作用将如何响应，因为这些关键的相互作用，如捕食者-猎物或植物-食草动物的相互作用，是生态系统功能和生态系统服务的关键。了解物种如何对快速变化的环境做出反应的一个线索可能在于支持这些反应的分子和/或遗传机制。适应可以利用种群内现有的遗传多样性。较高水平的遗传多样性提供了更多的表型变异，其中一些可能更好地适应新的或波动的环境条件。在没有遗传变异的情况下，生态相关性状的变异也可以通过表观遗传机制发生，如DNA甲基化。这些表观遗传标记不会永久地改变DNA序列，其影响可能是短暂的，只持续一代，或者显著地在代与代之间传递。该项目的目的之一是研究世代相传的环境信息是否有助于适应新环境。该项目将重点关注昆虫，昆虫是地球上数量最多、物种最丰富的动物群体。它们在所有陆地和许多水生生态系统中都起着基本作用，对包括授粉和虫害防治在内的生态功能至关重要。模拟未来气候变化的环境变化（如温度）的短期和长期影响可以在模型实验室系统中进行，该项目将建立在一个完善的营养系统，印度餐蛾（Plodia interpunctella）和寄生蜂（Venturia canescens）（例如1,2）。几十年来，像Plodia-Venturia这样的模型系统一直被用来回答自然界中极其难以解决的生态学和进化问题。Sait实验室最近的工作表明，在这些物种中，不同频率的变异会在短时间内引起表型变化，从而影响宿主和拟寄生物的种群动态(2)。然而，对这些反应的分子和/或遗传机制知之甚少（例如3）。利用这个系统，我们将把宿主和拟寄生物的生活史特征与分子方法（例如3-5）相结合，以了解宿主和拟寄生物如何在短时间和长时间的环境变化中，在多代内和多代之间适应不断变化的环境。这个项目将以利兹大学生物学院为基地，结合两位导师的技能，将生态研究与遗传变异的种群研究结合起来。在当前生物多样性危机的背景下，减缓并理想地停止生物多样性的丧失是至关重要的。这方面的一个关键方面是确定预测物种对环境扰动的恢复力的因素。该项目将开始研究物种如何适应短期和长期的环境变化，以及这些机制是否可以作为其他物种适应全球变化的预测指标。

Animals live in increasingly variable environments where conditions can change rapidly. In cases where environmental change is predictable, such as seasonal changes in temperature and precipitation, animals are adapted to cope with this variation. However, unpredictable, abrupt or extreme changes in the environment, which are increasingly characteristic of climate change, can have profound effects on species. Those species that fail to move or adapt face an increasing risk of extinction so understanding how some animals adapt to rapid changes in the environment and some don't is a key question in ecology, evolution and conservation biology. There is ample evidence that individual species have adapted to recent environmental change, but how they will cope with future change is not understood. Furthermore, of particular concern is how trophic interactions will respond because these critical interactions, such as predator-prey or plant-herbivore interactions, are key for ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services.One clue to understanding how species respond to rapidly changing environments may lie in the molecular and/or genetic mechanisms underpinning these responses. Adaptation may take advantage of existing genetic diversity within the population. Higher levels of genetic diversity provide more variation in phenotypes, some of which may be better adapted to the new or fluctuating environmental conditions. Variation in ecologically relevant traits can also occur through epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, in the absence of genetic variation. These epigenetic marks don't alter the DNA sequence permanently, and the effects may be transient, lasting for a single generation, or remarkably they may be passed between generations. One of the aims of this project would be to examine whether environmental information passed between generations facilitates adaptation to new environments.This project will focus on insects, which are the most abundant and species-rich group of animals on the planet. They have fundamental roles in all terrestrial and many aquatic ecosystems and are critical for ecological functions including pollination and pest control. The effects of short and long-term effects of environmental variations (e.g. temperature) that mimic future climate change can be carried out in model laboratory systems and this project would build on a well-established trophic system, the Indian meal moth (Plodia interpunctella) and the parasitic wasp (Venturia canescens) (e.g. 1,2). Model systems, such as Plodia-Venturia, have been used for decades to answer questions in ecology and evolution that are extremely difficult to address in the natural world. Recent work in the Sait lab has shown that different frequencies of variation cause phenotypic changes over short time scales in these species, affecting population dynamics of the host and parasitoid (2). However, little is known about the molecular and/or genetic mechanisms underpinning these responses (e.g. 3). Using this system we will combine measures of host and parasitoid life history traits with molecular methods (e.g. 3-5) to understand how the host and parasitoid adapt to changing environments over both short and long-time periods of environmental change, within and across multiple generations.This project will be based in the School of Biology at the University of Leeds and combines the skills of both supervisors to amalgamate ecological studies with population studies of genetic variation. In the context of the current biodiversity crisis, slowing, and ideally halting biodiversity loss is of paramount importance. A key aspect of this is identifying factors that predict resilience of species to environmental perturbation. This project will begin to address how species adapt to short- and long-term environmental change, and whether these mechanisms can act as predictors for adaptability to global change in other species.