Meeting Abstract
2-5 Friday, Jan. 4 09:00 – 09:15 The Effect of Incubation Temperature on the Plasticity of Embryonic Development and Color Expression in Plethodon cinereus EVANS, AE*; URBAN, MC; JOCKUSCH, EL; University of Connecticut; University of Connecticut; University of Connecticut annette.evans@uconn.edu https://twitter.com/annetteNZevans
Phenotypic plasticity can be a crucial adaptive response to climate change, particularly for dispersal-limited species living in fragmented habitats. In many amphibians, factors such as developmental temperature can induce plastic responses in general developmental traits such as growth rate and time to metamorphosis. For example warmer developmental temperatures typically cause increased growth and development rate thus a shorter time to reach metamorphosis. Plasticity has also been observed in the expression of color and patterns in amphibians, suggesting that plasticity may explain some of the spatial variation in relative frequency of alternative color morphs in natural populations. In the forests of northeastern North America, populations of red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) show differing proportions of two main color morphs, striped and unstriped. Although the color polymorphism has a genetic basis, plasticity may also contribute to the observed variation. We used a split-clutch common garden experiment to test the effects of developmental temperature on the growth, development and phenotype (color) of P. cinereus from six different populations across two states. Our results show promising evidence for temperature-induced plasticity in coloration of P. cinereus hatchlings. Surprisingly, we did not detect any temperature effects on hatchling size or any relationship between initial egg size and hatchling size. Given that the ecological and evolutionary drivers of the two morphs remain poorly understood, our study provides important insights into if and how polymorphic populations might be impacted by climate change across the range of this ecologically important species.
