2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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5/23/2019 | 2:30 PM - 2:45 PM | LINKING THERMAL TOLERANCE TO GENE EXPRESSION IN ALPINE STONEFLIES IMPERILED BY CLIMATE CHANGE | 250 AB

LINKING THERMAL TOLERANCE TO GENE EXPRESSION IN ALPINE STONEFLIES IMPERILED BY CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is dramatically altering alpine stream ecosystems through the recession of glaciers and snowfields which alters downstream conditions. For species that are linked to meltwater habitats, there is a pressing need to understand how ecologically relevant phenotypes relate to habitat conditions as well as the genetic architecture underlying them. Nemourid stoneflies are common in alpine stream communities in the Rocky Mountains. Two nemourids, Lednia tumana and Lednia tetonica, are of particular conservation concern with L. tumana having been petitioned for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act due to climate-induced habitat loss. Here, we tested the upper thermal tolerance–critical thermal maximum (CTmax)—for multiple nemourid stonefly species and populations that reside in a variety of alpine stream types as defined by primary hydrological source (e.g., glacier, snowfield, or a subterranean rock glacier). For a subset of populations and specimens, we collected RNA-sequencing data to explore differences in gene expression between stoneflies at their CTmax and control specimens acclimated to 3°C. We found that temperature regime was a significant predictor of CTmax and identified population-specific differences in gene expression associated with thermal tolerance in these sensitive alpine stoneflies.

Functional Ecology
ClimateChange
Temperature

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Presenters/Authors

Scott Hotaling (), Washington State University, scott.hotaling@uky.edu;