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Rapid within- and transgenerational changes in thermal tolerance and fitness in variable thermal landscapes
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  • Grisel Cavieres,
  • Enrico Rezende,
  • Sabrina Clavijo-Baquet,
  • Jose Alruiz,
  • Carla Rivera-Rebella,
  • Francisca Boher,
  • Francisco Bozinovic
Grisel Cavieres
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile

Corresponding Author:gcavieres@uc.cl

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Enrico Rezende
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
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Sabrina Clavijo-Baquet
Universidad de la República Uruguay
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Jose Alruiz
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
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Carla Rivera-Rebella
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
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Francisca Boher
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
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Francisco Bozinovic
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
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Abstract

Abstract Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to cope with variable environmental conditions increasing both performance and fitness. We studied within-generation plasticity and transgenerational effects of thermal conditions on temperature tolerance and demographic parameters in Drosophila melanogaster. We employed a fully factorial design, in which both parental (P) and offspring generations (F1) were reared in a constant or a variable thermal environment. Thermal variability during ontogeny increased heat tolerance in P, but with demographic cost as this treatment resulted in substantially lower survival, fecundity and net reproductive rate. The adverse effects of thermal variability (V) on demographic parameters were less drastic in flies from the F1, which exhibited higher net reproductive rates than their parents. These compensatory responses could not totally overcome the challenges of the thermally variable regime, contrasting with the offspring of flies raised in a constant temperature (C) that showed no reduction in fitness with thermal variation. Thus, the parental thermal environment had effect on thermal tolerance and demographic parameters in fruit-fly. These results demonstrate how transgenerational effects of environmental conditions on heat tolerance, as well as their potential costs on other fitness components, can have a major impact on populations’ resilience to warming temperatures and more frequent thermal extremes.
04 May 2020Submitted to Ecology and Evolution
04 May 2020Submission Checks Completed
04 May 2020Assigned to Editor
05 May 2020Reviewer(s) Assigned
19 May 2020Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
20 May 2020Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
30 May 20201st Revision Received
01 Jun 2020Submission Checks Completed
01 Jun 2020Assigned to Editor
01 Jun 2020Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
02 Jun 2020Editorial Decision: Accept
16 Jul 2020Published in Ecology and Evolution. 10.1002/ece3.6496