Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Temperature preference does not evolve in sticklebacks despite multigenerational exposure to elevated temperatures

View ORCID ProfileNatalie Pilakouta, View ORCID ProfileShaun S. Killen, View ORCID ProfileBjarni K. Kristjánsson, Skúli Skúlason, Jan Lindström, View ORCID ProfileNeil B. Metcalfe, View ORCID ProfileKevin J. Parsons
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/615005
Natalie Pilakouta
1Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health, and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Natalie Pilakouta
  • For correspondence: n.pilakouta@gmail.com
Shaun S. Killen
1Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health, and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Shaun S. Killen
Bjarni K. Kristjánsson
2Department of Aquaculture and Fish Biology, Hólar University College, Sauðárkrókur, Iceland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Bjarni K. Kristjánsson
Skúli Skúlason
2Department of Aquaculture and Fish Biology, Hólar University College, Sauðárkrókur, Iceland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jan Lindström
1Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health, and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Neil B. Metcalfe
1Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health, and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Neil B. Metcalfe
Kevin J. Parsons
1Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health, and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Kevin J. Parsons
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

ABSTRACT

Given the threat of climate change to biodiversity, a growing number of studies are investigating the potential for organisms to adapt to rising temperatures through changes in their physiology, morphology, and behaviour. Earlier work has predicted that evolutionary adaptation to climate change will be accompanied by a shift in temperature preferences, but empirical evidence for this is limited. Here, we test whether exposure to a warm environment over multiple generations has led to the evolution of higher preferred temperatures in the wild. We have taken advantage of a ‘natural experiment’ in Iceland, where freshwater populations of threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) are found in waters warmed by geothermal activity year-round (warm habitats), adjacent to populations in ambient-temperature lakes (cold habitats). We hypothesised that sticklebacks from warm habitats would prefer higher water temperatures than those from cold habitats, but we found no support for this hypothesis. Fish from both warm and cold habitats had an average preferred temperature of 13°C, which is considerably lower than the temperatures experienced by fish in warm habitats for most of the year. Our results therefore challenge the assumption that temperature preferences in ectotherms will readily evolve as a response to climate change. Furthermore, the fact that warm-habitat fish are able to persist at relatively high temperatures despite a lower temperature preference suggests that preferred temperature may be a poor indicator of a population’s evolutionary potential and capacity to adapt to a novel thermal environment.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted April 24, 2019.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Temperature preference does not evolve in sticklebacks despite multigenerational exposure to elevated temperatures
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Temperature preference does not evolve in sticklebacks despite multigenerational exposure to elevated temperatures
Natalie Pilakouta, Shaun S. Killen, Bjarni K. Kristjánsson, Skúli Skúlason, Jan Lindström, Neil B. Metcalfe, Kevin J. Parsons
bioRxiv 615005; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/615005
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Temperature preference does not evolve in sticklebacks despite multigenerational exposure to elevated temperatures
Natalie Pilakouta, Shaun S. Killen, Bjarni K. Kristjánsson, Skúli Skúlason, Jan Lindström, Neil B. Metcalfe, Kevin J. Parsons
bioRxiv 615005; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/615005

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Evolutionary Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (2635)
  • Biochemistry (5224)
  • Bioengineering (3650)
  • Bioinformatics (15730)
  • Biophysics (7218)
  • Cancer Biology (5597)
  • Cell Biology (8051)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (4739)
  • Ecology (7472)
  • Epidemiology (2059)
  • Evolutionary Biology (10531)
  • Genetics (7704)
  • Genomics (10090)
  • Immunology (5157)
  • Microbiology (13829)
  • Molecular Biology (5354)
  • Neuroscience (30605)
  • Paleontology (212)
  • Pathology (872)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (1520)
  • Physiology (2235)
  • Plant Biology (4987)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1037)
  • Synthetic Biology (1380)
  • Systems Biology (4131)
  • Zoology (804)