Ecological and Evolutionary Response of Natural Populations to Climate Change: The Role of Phenotypic Plasticity

• Applicant: Dr. Tim Schmoll
• Subject Area: Sensory and Behavioural Biology
• Term: from 2009 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 126382469

Natural populations are frequently affected by climate change. For example, many bird species have responded to increasing spring temperatures by shifting their timing of reproduction towards earlier breeding over the last decades. It is unexplored, however, how much of these population-level responses can be attributed to changes in the behaviour of individuals (indicating phenotypic plasticity) compared to changes in the genetic composition of the population (suggesting microevolution). Disentangling both mechanisms is of crucial importance for predicting how populations will respond to future climate change and whether they will react fast enough to escape extinction. This project applies powerful quantitative genetic statistical tools (so-called 'animal models') to outstanding long-term pedigree data sets from three sympatric bird populations collected over 35 years. First, the relative contributions of plasticity versus microevolution to population-level responses in the timing of reproduction and in further key reproductive traits will be assessed. Second, the evolution of phenotypic plasticity itself is addressed. Is there heritable variation in plasticity and thus a potential for adaptive microevolution of plasticity? This research allows an assessment of how far phenotypic plasticity may or may not be able to contribute to mitigating the effects of recent, and future, climate change and will be of applied merit for conservation biology. But it will just as well allow novel and fundamental insights into the evolutionary genetics of phenotypic plasticity.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Host: Professorin Dr. Loeske Kruuk