This project is centred on an integrative and collaborative research program to investigate the evolutionary potential of populations to respond to climate change and a potentially general mechanism of adaptation, namely increased mitochondrial efficiency. The proposed work will be a significant advance to the field by measuring the evolutionary potential of developmental thermal physiology across natural populations, testing an underlying mechanism mediating adaptation to a warmer climate: namely the thermal sensitivity of mitochondrial efficiency (ATP/O). Outcomes will advance both basic biological knowledge, and applied climate change responses which are of importance to EU citizens, by a) testing individual- and population- level variation to predict species-level responses to climate change, and b) identifying a potentially general mechanism for thermal adaptation that can focus conservation efforts. This will be the first project to incorporate population-level phenotypic patterns with mitochondrial function using a quantitative genetics framework. Measuring quantitative genetics in wild populations is a significant challenge to addressing our understanding of the impacts of climate change - studies of this nature are rare. Further, studies seeking to understand genetic adaptation almost never investigate this across scales of biological organisation.
It will use a combination of field work with laboratory measurements and techniques on natural populations of a widely distributed freshwater fish, and meta-analytical techniques, to target the following novel objectives:
Objective 1) Test for divergence in mitochondrial efficiency (ATP/O) and developmental thermal physiology across locally adapted populations spanning a wide latitudinal gradient;
Objective 2) Identify how developmental temperature affects ATP/O;
Objective 3) Determine how selection and heritability of developmental thermal physiology varies across populations, and how ATP/O may mediate temperature-dependent selection.
