Reproductive acclimation to increased water temperature in a tropical reef fish

Donelson, Jennifer M., McCormick, Mark I., Booth, David J., and Munday, Philip L. (2014) Reproductive acclimation to increased water temperature in a tropical reef fish. PLoS ONE, 9 (5). e97223. pp. 1-9.

[img]
Preview
PDF (Published Version) - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (908kB) | Preview
View at Publisher Website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0...
 
65
1172


Abstract

Understanding the capacity of organisms to cope with projected global warming through acclimation and adaptation is critical to predicting their likely future persistence. While recent research has shown that developmental acclimation of metabolic attributes to ocean warming is possible, our understanding of the plasticity of key fitness-associated traits, such as reproductive performance, is lacking. We show that while the reproductive ability of a tropical reef fish is highly sensitive to increases in water temperature, reproductive capacity at +1.5°C above present-day was improved to match fish maintained at present-day temperatures when fish complete their development at the higher temperature. However, reproductive acclimation was not observed in fish reared at +3.0°C warmer than present-day, suggesting limitations to the acclimation possible within one generation. Surprisingly, the improvements seen in reproduction were not predicted by the oxygen- and capacity-limited thermal tolerance hypothesis. Specifically, pairs reared at +1.5°C, which showed the greatest capacity for reproductive acclimation, exhibited no acclimation of metabolic attributes. Conversely, pairs reared at +3.0°C, which exhibited acclimation in resting metabolic rate, demonstrated little capacity for reproductive acclimation. Our study suggests that understanding the acclimation capacity of reproductive performance will be critically important to predicting the impacts of climate change on biological systems.

Item ID: 34098
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1932-6203
Additional Information:

© 2014 Donelson et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funders: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Climate Adaptation Flagship, Australian Coral Reef Society (ACRS), Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (ARC CoE Coral Reef Studies)
Projects and Grants: GBRMPA Science for Management Awards
Date Deposited: 16 Jul 2014 09:22
FoR Codes: 06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0602 Ecology > 060205 Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl Marine Ichthyology) @ 50%
05 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 0501 Ecological Applications > 050101 Ecological Impacts of Climate Change @ 50%
SEO Codes: 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970106 Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences @ 50%
96 ENVIRONMENT > 9603 Climate and Climate Change > 960399 Climate and Climate Change not elsewhere classified @ 50%
Downloads: Total: 1172
Last 12 Months: 92
More Statistics

Actions (Repository Staff Only)

Item Control Page Item Control Page