Research paper |
Corresponding author: James E. O'Dwyer ( 18088076@students.latrobe.edu.au ) Academic editor: Gilianne Brodie
© 2021 James E. O'Dwyer, Nicholas P. Murphy.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
O'Dwyer JE, Murphy NP (2021) Long term environmental stability drives reduced stress tolerance in salt lake invertebrates. Rethinking Ecology 6: 49-64. https://doi.org/10.3897/rethinkingecology.6.58899
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The capacity of species to tolerate physical stressors is critical in a world of increasing environmental instability, however, past selective environments should dramatically impact on future stress tolerance, particularly in isolated populations. Through stabilising selection, long-term environmental stasis may reduce physiological tolerance, creating an evolutionary legacy where populations are less fit if environments change. Few empirical studies have investigated this evolutionary legacy of past selection, and of particular interest whether stabilising selection in a benign environment reduces stress tolerance in natural systems. Here we use multiple populations of salt-lake invertebrates (Coxiella striata, Austrochiltonia subtenuis) with either stable or fluctuating environmental histories to investigate the relationship between stabilising selection and environmental stress resistance. Tolerance to both salinity and temperature stress were examined in invertebrate populations from lakes with long-term (decadal) stable environments and compared with populations from lakes with extreme salinity variations. Individuals from stable environments demonstrated significantly lower survival under both increasing salinity and temperature stresses when compared with environmentally unstable populations. Our results support the hypothesis that the evolutionary legacy from stabilising selection in constant environments leads to reduced stress tolerance. This finding demonstrates that under an increasingly variable climate, the evolutionary legacies of populations will be critical for future survival and adaptation.
Evolutionary legacy, local adaptation, physiological stress tolerance, stabilising selection
By 2100 over 20% of environments are predicted to suffer from extreme variability (
The role that stabilising selection may play in limiting a population’s ability to adapt to future change is of particular interest. Stochastic influences, such as population bottlenecks and genetic drift, are well-understood drivers of reduced fitness and phenotypic variation in populations (
Here, we aim to examine the evolutionary legacy of long-term stabilising selection on the stress tolerance of salt-lake invertebrate populations. Salt-lake systems provide an ideal environment for examining the population-level effects of environmental stability and fluctuation. Firstly, populations of plants and animals in lakes are generally more isolated than those present in interconnected waterways (
Here we examine how the fitness of two model species can vary significantly across their range, dependent on a population’s environmental history and subsequent evolutionary legacy. In particular, we hypothesise that populations of salt lake invertebrates that have persisted in deep, long-term stable environments have reduced fitness under salinity and temperature stress when compared with populations from shallow lakes that experience frequent fluctuating environmental conditions.
This study investigated populations of salt-lake snail Coxiella striata (Reeve, 1842) and a salt lake amphipod Austrochiltonia subtenuis (Sayce, 1902) found across saline lakes in the Corangamite and Hopkins Basins of western Victoria, Australia (Fig.
Locations of each lake, as well as abiotic conditions recorded for each lake and their ecological significance. Temperature, salinity averages, and water level classification data was collected from long term lake monitoring sites (
Site | Latitude/ longitude coordinates | Salinity (ppt) measured during the study: Measurements 1/2 | 40-year average salinity (ppt) | Standard deviation of salinity measurement* (ppt) | Water level classification | Temp min/max + mean |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bullen Merri (stable) | -38.237680, 143.105852 | 9.69/9.61 | 8.63 | 0.47 | Deep (>5 m) | 8/27.4 |
16.5 | ||||||
Struan (stable) | -38.019373, 143.418475 | 1.94/1.96 | NA | NA | NA | NA |
Bolac (unstable) | -37.720898, 142.858117 | NA/4.01 | 6.27 | 9.60 | shallow (<5 m) | 8/26.6 |
16.3 | ||||||
Bookar (unstable) | -38.145135, 143.109618 | 40.19/40.32 | 20.78 | 15.86 | shallow (<5 m) | 4.7/31.2 |
16.6 |
Map of sampling locations for each lake. Red circles indicate environmentally unstable lakes; green circles indicate environmentally stable lakes.
Environmental stability and average salinities for Bullen Merri, Bolac, and Bookar were determined from salinity measurements taken over the past 40 years (Suppl. material
The snail C. striata has a wide, non-continuous distribution ranging across South Australia, Western Victoria and Tasmania (
The amphipod A. subtenuis has a wide, non-continuous distribution spanning across South Australia and Victoria (
DNA sequencing was used to determine the taxonomic status and evolutionary independence of each lake population. Snails from each lake were sequenced for two mitochondrial regions, Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) and 16S ribosomal RNA, as well as the nuclear Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region. Amphipods from each lake were sequenced only for the COI region (Suppl. material
Approximately 200 snails and 100 amphipods were collected from each lake for physiological stress testing. Samples were collected using dip nets between one and three metres from the lake shoreline and at a depth between 50 cm and 1 metre. Salinity and water temperature measurements were taken at the time of collection. Samples from each lake were placed into separate 20 L aquaria adjusted to the salinity recorded at collection, using Red Sea Salt to approximate major ionic levels found across each lake (Leahy 2010). pH was maintained with API pH increasing solution, and aquaria kept at a 12-hour day-night cycle at 17 °C. Snails and amphipods were fed daily with algae, goldfish flakes, and algal wafers. All samples were acclimatised for 14 days before physical trials commenced. All lake populations were tested simultaneously, with different individuals used for each test, and controls run (each population being kept at the salinity and temperature recorded for that lake upon collection) undertaken with the same handling as each test.
We measured the impact of both gradual salinity change and prolonged salinity exposure on individual survival. To test gradual salinity change, 30 to 40 individuals of either species from each lake were placed into separate plastic bags containing 1 L of water (within aquaria to maintain temperature). Both increasing and decreasing salinities (from acclimation salinity) were tested; NaCl was added to increase salinity and fixed volumes of saline water replaced by fresh to decrease salinity. Individual snails were probed daily and observed for a response; non-responsive individuals were placed on their backs and if after five minutes had not righted themselves were considered dead and removed and the salinity recorded. Individual amphipods were considered dead if they had fallen to the bottom of the bag and were not responsive to water currents blown through an eyedropper.
To test the effect of prolonged salinity exposure, 15 snails from each lake were placed into individual bags at salinity concentrations of 0 ppt, 40 ppt, 55 ppt, and 70 ppt. Individual death was examined daily, with time of death recorded for each individual. Amphipods were not included in prolonged salinity exposure tests due to insufficient individuals being successfully collected. For all salinity tests, individuals were fed daily and an eyedropper was used to aerate bags daily.
To test thermal tolerance, 30 snails from each lake were placed in separate 1 L bags under acclimation salinities. Each bag was then placed inside a larger water bath, which underwent a daily temperature increase of 3 °C, starting at 17 °C until 32 °C, where the temperature was then raised by 1.5 °C daily. Individual death was examined daily, using the same methods described in the salinity trials.
For all stress trials, proportional survival rates were measured at each salinity or temperature increment (or each day for the prolonged exposure test). For each trial, a Generalised Linear Model (GLM) was created with “proportion survived” as the dependent variable, and “lake of origin” and “trial condition” as the interacting, independent variables. GLMs were run both with raw data and with a log transformation of the trial condition. The best fit model for each trial was chosen based on lower Akaike Information Criterion values, allowing for the best model under the conditions tested to be chosen for each dataset (
Throughout the entire testing period, the controls of the snail species C. striata showed a decline of less than 10% for each population (Suppl. material
All populations from both species displayed responses to increasing salinity exposure in line with initial predictions. Snails from fluctuating environments (Lakes Bookar and Bolac) displaying greater tolerance to stress (Fig.
Survival rate under gradually increasing salinity for populations of C. striata snails from each lake. Shaded areas are representative of a 95% confidence interval for proportion of living snails under each predicted mean. D2 of the model is 0.9594. Additional statistics for each model can be found in Suppl. material
Survival rate under gradually increasing salinity for populations of A. subtenuis from each lake. Shaded areas are representative of a 95% confidence interval for proportion of living amphipods under each predicted mean. The D2 of the model is 0.9315. Additional statistics for each model can be found in Suppl. material
The prolonged exposure to increased salinity (measured only in the snail populations) reflects those of the gradual salinity increase. Again, the stable lakes, Bullen Merri and Struan, were the most vulnerable (Fig.
Survival rate plotted against days exposure to conditions of 40 ppt (A), 55 ppt (B), and 70 ppt (C) for populations of C. striata from each lake. Shaded areas are representative of a 95% confidence interval for proportion of living snails under each predicted mean. The D2 of the 40 ppt, 55 ppt, and 70 ppt models are 0.9115, 0.9165, and 0.9159 respectively. Additional statistics for each model can be found in Suppl. material
Prolonged exposure to freshwater demonstrated contrasting relationships amongst populations (Figs
Survival rate under the number of days of exposure to freshwater for populations of C. striata from each lake. Shaded areas are representative of a 95% confidence interval for proportion of living snails under each predicted mean. D2 of the model is 0.9457. Additional statistics for each model can be found in Suppl. material
Survival rate under the number of days of exposure to freshwater for populations of A. subtenuis from each lake and controls. Shaded areas are representative of a 95% confidence interval for proportion of living amphipods under each predicted mean. D2 of the model is 0.9326. Additional statistics for each model can be found in Suppl. material
The temperature trials (only undertaken on snails) reflected the results of the salinity testing, with Bookar the most tolerant to increasing temperature followed by Bolac, whilst Bullen Merri and Struan are less tolerant to temperature increase. There were significant differences between all lakes once temperatures became > 36.5 °C. At this temperature, there was 0% survival from Bullen Merri and Struan snails, whilst survival in both Bookar and Bolac was > 10% in temperatures > 38 °C (Fig.
Survival rate under gradually increasing temperatures for populations of C. striata from each lake. Shaded areas are representative of a 95% confidence interval for proportion of living snails under each predicted mean. D2 of the model is 0.9758. Additional statistics for each model can be found in Suppl. material
The selection processes that limit phenotypic diversity have crucial implications for the survival of populations in a changing world (
While previous studies have found evidence of environmental histories driving stress response at a species level (
Acclimation effects are also important to consider here (
Another factor to consider is the role dispersal may play in mitigating any potential phenotypic shifts in stress tolerances within populations of each lake. The genetic analyses of each species demonstrated private haplotypes within each lake population, and significant pairwise FST between, suggesting population isolation (
Here we stress that these results are preliminary and that relative impacts of evolutionary legacy should be examined over multiple generations, and ideally from additional populations. However, the key findings from this study strongly support that heritable stress resistances, driven by historic lake conditions, contribute significantly to the tolerance differences amongst populations. The salinity tolerances of the unstable populations are far above their present-day conditions, but clearly, high tolerance is not a species-wide trait in both snails and amphipods. Critically, the evolutionary legacy of low-stress tolerance driven by environmental stability could lead to populations being unable to survive minor environmental changes. There are, however, key limitations within this study which must be considered when understanding the broader implications of the impact of evolutionary legacy seen here. We acknowledge that the presence of only four total lake populations precludes a definitive assertion about the importance of evolutionary legacy. Instead, in writing this work, we hope to provide preliminary evidence of the underestimated impact of stabilising selection and argue that further work is critical to explore the true extent of this phenomenon. We suggest that much more research on empirical examples of species inhabiting both stable and fluctuating environments is required, especially in isolated populations where natural evolutionary rescue may take multiple generations.
Our results demonstrate that environmental history could be used to gauge the likely evolutionary limits of populations and therefore could be used to better identify better sources for promoting phenotypic variation (
With many habitats predicted to become increasingly prone to larger environmental fluctuations under an increasingly variable climate (
We would like to thank the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre for assistance in funding this study. We would also like to thank Simon Watson for assistance with data analysis, and Erin Hill, Jude Hatley, Katherine Harrisson, and Joshua Grubb for their assistance with laboratory protocols and feedback on manuscripts. Lastly, we would like to thank all fieldwork volunteers who assisted with the collection of samples. The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Additional salinity information from each lake
Data type: Environmental variables
Explanation note: This file contains additional information of salinity for each of the studied salt lakes.
Population genetic analysis
Data type: phylogenetics
Explanation note: This file contains the methods and results of the genetic analysis undertaken to confirm population isolation and the same species were being examined.
Control trials of each species
Data type: Control trials
Explanation note: This file contains information on the results of control trials for each species.
Additional information on model coefficients and significance
Data type: statistical information
Explanation note: This document contains information on the coefficients, Null and residual deviance and analysis of devience for each of the generalised linear models generated within this study.