Environment and phenology shape local adaptation in thermal performance

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Evolutionary Biology
• Marine Biology

Background:

• Local adaptation drives trait variation within species, influencing their capacity to adapt to climate change.
• Mechanistic understanding of how environmental factors shape trait variation is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify thermal performance in marine snail (Urosalpinx cinerea) populations across North American coasts.
• To investigate the relationship between thermal performance and environmental metrics.

Main Methods:

• Common garden experiments were conducted on eight populations of Urosalpinx cinerea.
• Thermal performance was measured and correlated with environmental data from time-series analysis.

Main Results:

• A 'mixed' trait performance adaptation pattern was observed.
• Thermal optima correlated positively with spawning temperature (cogradient variation).
• Maximum trait performance correlated negatively with season length (countergradient variation), likely due to phenological shifts.

Conclusions:

• Environmental factors shape thermal performance through multiple mechanisms, including organismal phenology and natural history.
• Understanding climate change impacts requires knowledge of how thermal environments will change.
• Phenological shifts in spawning seasons contribute to observed adaptation patterns in marine snails.