A new conceptual framework to study thermal preference plasticity in ectotherms - Archive ouverte HAL
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2024

A new conceptual framework to study thermal preference plasticity in ectotherms

Nicolas Meyer
  • Fonction : Auteur
H Colinet

Résumé

Thermal thresholds are important components of thermal biology in ectotherms. Thermal preference can prevent ectotherms from encountering sublethal temperature in heterogeneous environments and its plasticity is expected to play a role in the importance of behavioral thermoregulation. In general, the thermal sensitivity of ectotherms varies across their different life stages as they can be adapted to different micro-environments, and this is also expected for temperature preference. The dynamics of thermal preference, and its plasticity, across the ontogeny of ectotherms remains however overlooked. Here, we first propose a conceptual framework including competing hypotheses about thermal preference plasticity, that relate differently two important components of temperature preference: its mean, which indicates temperature affinity, and its variance, which informs on the precision of behavioral thermoregulation. Then, we measured the variation of thermal preference across the different life stages of an insect model, after several generations under various developmental temperatures, as a test of this conceptual model. Individuals from the same population of origin were split among five temperature treatments to test for the level of plasticity of the thermal preference of each life stage. The plasticity of the thermal preference to the developmental temperature differed between life stages of Drosophila melanogaster (L3, L3W, virgin and old adults). Our results highlight that different life stages can deviate in their behavioral response to temperature changes, exposing potentially the less plastic life stage to challenging thermal conditions. Generally, our results suggest a bell-shape relationship between temperature affinity and precision of thermoregulation, with a less constrained need to thermoregulate precisely within the range of suboptimal temperatures.
Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

hal-04625035 , version 1 (25-06-2024)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04625035 , version 1

Citer

Gwenaëlle Deconninck, Nicolas Meyer, H Colinet, Sylvain Pincebourde. A new conceptual framework to study thermal preference plasticity in ectotherms. Life is plastic: How phenotypic plasticity makes us rethink central problems in biology (Jacques Monod Conference), Luis-Miguel CHEVIN; Cameron GHALAMBOR, Jun 2024, Roscoff, France. ⟨hal-04625035⟩
72 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Partager

More