Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Understanding Context Dependent Responses To Climate Change In Arizona Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma Mavortium Nebulosum), Kentrell Richardson

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Future emissions scenarios project climate change to increase average global temperatures by at least two ℃ in the next 50 years resulting in changes in local climate and causing increased variability within microclimates. Ectotherms are especially sensitive to climate change due to their dependence on environmental temperatures to regulate physiological functions. Changes in temperature are likely to impact thermally cued processes within amphibians and result in changes in variable magnitudes and directions within local populations.

Salamanders were placed in cups and partially submerged in a water bath and heated at a rate of ~0.27℃/ minute. Once salamanders were unable to …

Parental Effects On Offspring Reaction Norms: Consequences For Complex Phenotypes In Variable Environments, Alexandra G. Cones

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Organismal traits all exhibit some degree of environmental sensitivity, and both the strength and direction of these phenotypically plastic responses to the environment can evolve in adaptive ways. For example, parents can use information about their own environment to precondition the traits of their offspring so that they thrive in their future environment. This transgenerational plasticity can also alter the plasticity of offspring, but explicit investigations of this specific phenomenon are rare. I begin with a review of the literature and provide a quantitative genetic framework to investigate this phenomenon, which I then explore empirically using avian embryos. The metabolic …