10.6078/D1KM48
Tonione, Maria
0000-0001-7447-213X
University of California, Berkeley
Cho, So Mi
University of California, Berkeley
Richmond, Gary
University of California, Berkeley
Irian, Christian
University of California, Berkeley
Tsutsui, Neil
University of California, Berkeley
Intraspecific variation in thermal acclimation and tolerance between
populations of the winter ant, Prenolepis imparis
Dryad
dataset
2019
Prenolepis imparis
knockdown
United States Department of Agriculture
https://ror.org/01na82s61
Hatch Project CA‐B‐INS‐0087‐H
Mildred E. Mathias Graduate Student Research Grant*
2021-03-24T00:00:00Z
2021-03-24T00:00:00Z
en
33817 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Thermal phenotypic plasticity, otherwise known as acclimation, plays an
essential role in how organisms respond to short‐term temperature changes.
Plasticity buffers the impact of harmful temperature changes; therefore,
understanding variation in plasticity in natural populations is crucial
for understanding how species will respond to the changing climate.
However, very few studies have examined patterns of phenotypic plasticity
among populations, especially among ant populations. Considering that this
intraspecies variation can provide insight into adaptive variation in
populations, the goal of this study was to quantify the short‐term
acclimation ability and thermal tolerance of several populations of the
winter ant, Prenolepis imparis. We tested for correlations between thermal
plasticity and thermal tolerance, elevation, and body size. We
characterized the thermal environment both above and below ground for
several populations distributed across different elevations within
California, USA. In addition, we measured the short‐term acclimation
ability and thermal tolerance of those populations. To measure thermal
tolerance, we used chill‐coma recovery time (CCRT) and knockdown time as
indicators of cold and heat tolerance, respectively. Short‐term phenotypic
plasticity was assessed by calculating acclimation capacity using CCRT and
knockdown time after exposure to both high and low temperatures. We found
that several populations displayed different chill‐coma recovery times and
a few displayed different heat knockdown times, and that the acclimation
capacities of cold and heat tolerance differed among most populations. The
high‐elevation populations displayed increased tolerance to the cold
(faster CCRT) and greater plasticity. For high‐temperature tolerance, we
found heat tolerance was not associated with altitude; instead, greater
tolerance to the heat was correlated with increased plasticity at higher
temperatures. These current findings provide insight into thermal
adaptation and factors that contribute to phenotypic diversity by
revealing physiological variance among populations.
This is the unprocessed chill-coma recovery times and knockdown times.