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Micro-scale environmental variation amplifies physiological variation among individual mussels
Ana Gabriela Jimenez1, Sarah Jayawardene2, Shaina Alves2
1Department of Biology, Loyola Marymount University, 1 LMU Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90045.
Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|December 10, 2015
Summary
Environmental variation significantly impacts mussel physiology. Mussels acclimated to stable conditions showed reduced variation, highlighting plasticity and the need to consider micro-scale environments in predicting responses to climate change.
Area of Science:
- Marine Biology
- Physiological Ecology
- Environmental Science
Background:
- Temporal and spatial environmental variations' impact on physiological variation is not well understood.
- Rocky intertidal zones experience significant thermal fluctuations due to tidal cycles and micro-scale variations.
- Understanding these variations is crucial for predicting species' responses to climate change.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the consequences of micro-scale environmental variation on physiological variation in sea mussels (Mytilus californianus).
- To determine the role of environmental experience in shaping physiological phenotypes.
- To assess how common garden and reciprocal outplanting approaches affect physiological variation.
Main Methods:
- Assessed physiological variation in field-acclimatized mussels.
- Abolished micro-scale environmental variation using common garden acclimation.
- Restored micro-scale environmental variation via reciprocal outplanting.
Main Results:
- Common garden acclimation reduced antioxidant capacity variation by ~30% in mussels from a warm, wave-protected site, but not from a cool, wave-exposed site.
- Restoring environmental variation by outplanting protected-site mussels to a stressful site re-established antioxidant variation.
- Oxygen consumption rates mirrored antioxidant patterns, decreasing significantly in protected-site mussels after common gardening.
Conclusions:
- Physiological phenotypes in Mytilus californianus exhibit high plasticity, strongly dependent on recent environmental experience.
- Context-dependent changes in physiological mean-variance relationships complicate predictions of population responses to global environmental change.
- Micro-scale environmental variation plays a significant role in shaping individual physiological differences within populations.
Keywords:
antioxidantinter-individual variationintertidal zonemetabolic ratephysiological plasticitytemperatureMore Related Videos
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