Transgenerational plasticity and climate change: phenotypic responses across ectothermic animals.

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Evolutionary Biology
• Climate Change Biology

Background:

• Predicting population-level responses to climate change using organismal data is challenging.
• Many studies on warmer environments struggle to link results to population persistence.
• Ectotherm physiology, reproduction, and survival are highly temperature-sensitive.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review multi-generational effects of climate change on ectotherms.
• To focus on ecophysiological consequences of warming and transgenerational phenotypic plasticity.
• To identify gaps in current research for future studies.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing multi-generational experimental designs.
• Analysis of studies examining climate change impacts across generations.
• Focus on ectothermic animals and their responses to warming.

Main Results:

• Multi-generational experiments provide more accurate population-level response data than single-generation studies.
• Warming has significant ecophysiological consequences for ectotherms.
• Evidence for transgenerational phenotypic plasticity in response to climate change exists.

Conclusions:

• Multi-generational experiments are vital for accurately assessing climate change impacts on populations.
• Further research is needed to address identified gaps in understanding transgenerational effects.
• Continued development of these experimental designs will enhance predictions of population persistence under climate change.