Meeting Abstract
Global climate change is increasing water temperatures and impacting thermal-sensitive organisms living in these aquatic systems. Development under elevated water temperatures may alter offspring phenotype and ability to cope with these changes. In addition, maternal stress signals (such as pre-natal cortisol) may be an important mechanism by which offspring can prepare for a more stressful future environment. Here we take a transcriptomics approach to exploring the interactive roles of pre-natal stress and elevated water temperatures in influencing the capacity of fish to match developmental and physiological responses to future elevated water temperature stress in Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). To simulate a biologically relevant maternal stress signal, we will expose wild-collected eggs to one of two treatments immediately following fertilization: cortisol (1000 ng/ml) or control (water only) bath. Each group will then be subdivided into two temperature treatments representing current and climate-change projected (+3°C) water temperature regimes. Samples from relevant tissues will be collected across multiple life stages to examine transcriptional profiles across treatment combinations. To test whether pre-natal exposure to stress signals increases future preparedness to acute unpredictable stressors, we will examine the transcript responses of a subset of individuals to a water temperature spike. Overall this work represents an important first step towards determining whether exposure to pre-natal stress and temperature signals provides developmental plasticity and flexibility to adapt to projected temperature increases within climate change scenarios.
