Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Effects of climate change on adult body size: Towards an integrative approach to understand the underlying mechanisms, the consequences across the lifespan, and improve our predictive ability

Project description

Innovative study into the unexplored relationship between climate change and body size

To date, no studies on higher vertebrates have investigated how changes in growth (plasticity) versus allele frequency (microevolution) affect adult body size as a result of climate change. Furthermore, no studies have tested for the lifelong effects of climate-induced change in growth and size on individual life history within and between generations. The EU-funded CLIMGROWTH project will address these knowledge gaps by studying the Alpine swift, employing a database of over 4 000 individuals collated over more than 20 years. The research fellow will use genetic models to investigate the role of developmental plasticity and microevolution in changes in body size in response to climate change and provide results on the effects of natal climatic conditions on individual life histories.

Objective

Changes in adult body size have become a flagship response to climate change. In organisms with a finite growth, as mammals and birds (higher vertebrates), it is thought to result foremost from climate-induced changes in growth trajectories (plasticity) rather than from changes in the frequency of alleles coding for body size (microevolution). As a key ecological trait, body size is also an important driver of individual life history: individual growth conditions will ultimately determine maturation, reproduction and ageing. However, to date no studies on higher vertebrates have formally investigated the contribution of developmental plasticity vs. microevolution at explaining changes in adult body size in response to climate change and, more importantly, no studies have tested for lifelong effects of climate-induced change in growth and size on individual life history within and between generations. In CLIMGROWTH, I propose to focus on the Alpine swift, a species of outstanding morphological and metabolic characteristics (non-stop flights of up to 200 days), for which preliminary results show a significant increase in body size. In particular, I will use an unprecedented long-term database (>4,000 individuals, >20 years) to combine complex, state-of-the-art, statistical modelling approaches in order to address these knowledge gaps by: (1) testing for the first time in a higher vertebrate the contribution of developmental plasticity and microevolution at accounting for a change in body size in response to climate change using pedigree-based quantitative genetic models; (2) providing long-awaited results on the lifelong consequences of natal climatic conditions on individual life histories, (3) their transgenerational effects on offspring life histories; and (4) addressing the debate between quantitative geneticists and demographers in how to generate reliable predictions for responses to climate change by applying the different approaches in the same study system.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

SCHWEIZERISCHE VOGELWARTE SEMPACH
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 209 598,24
Address
LUZERNERSTRASSE 6
6204 Sempach
Switzerland

See on map

Region
Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Zentralschweiz Luzern
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 209 598,24

Participants (1)

Partners (1)

My booklet 0 0