Meeting Abstract
Global average temperature is rising, however, the capacity of ectotherms to cope with climate change isn’t thoroughly understood. Some can respond to long-term changes in temperature through transgenerational plasticity (i.e. thermal experiences can be passed on to offspring, improving their ability to tolerate warmer temperatures). Previous studies have observed this in fish that are warm-adapted or eurythermal, but it’s unclear whether cold-adapted, stenothermal ectotherms are capable of the same response. This study examines transgenerational plasticity in lake trout and brook trout to determine whether there’s potential for these fish to cope with anticipated warming. If transgenerational plasticity is possible in cold-adapted, stenothermal ectotherms, then trout will be better suited to a warmer environment if their parents had also experienced a warm environment. To test this, we acclimated adult trout to optimal or elevated temperatures, then crossed these fish to produce offspring from parents of matched and mismatched temperatures. At the fry stage, the offspring were also acclimated to an optimal or elevated temperature and their thermal tolerance was determined by measuring their critical thermal maximum and metabolic rate during an acute temperature challenge. Transgenerational plasticity was evident in both species since offspring performed best when their environment matched that of their parents. Future experiments will explore the influence of transgenerational plasticity on proximate mechanisms underlying thermal tolerance.
