Meeting Abstract

S9.5  Friday, Jan. 7  Using intraspecific variation to assess the capacity for acclimation and adaptation of thermal tolerance in fish SCHULTE, P.M.*; DHILLON, R.S.; HEALY, T.M.; University of British Columbia pschulte@zoology.ubc.ca

Understanding the extent to which organisms can acclimate or adapt to changes in environmental temperature is likely to be a critical component of our ability to predict responses of species to global climate change. In addition, a mechanistic perspective that explicitly seeks to link processes at the molecular and cellular levels to whole-organism performance measures may also contribute to developing predictive power by highlighting potential constraints and trade-offs associated with acclimation or adaptation to temperature change. For example, the conceptual framework of oxygen-limited thermal tolerance, which links thermal effects on the ability to take up and utilize oxygen to thermal limits of performance, can be used to generate explicit predictions about the responses of aquatic organisms to temperature change. In this review, I illustrate these points using examples from intertidal and estuarine fishes. These organisms are particularly useful experimental models to examine these issues because they occupy habitats that exhibit thermal variation at multiple spatial and temporal scales.