Open AccessAdaptive responses and invasion: the role of plasticity and evolution in snail shell morphology
Author(s) -
Kistner Erica J.,
Dybdahl Mark F.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
ecology and evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.17
H-Index - 63
ISSN - 2045-7758
DOI - 10.1002/ece3.471
Subject(s) - snail , biology , phenotypic plasticity , adaptation (eye) , population , morphology (biology) , shell (structure) , ecology , evolutionary biology , plasticity , range (aeronautics) , gene flow , habitat , zoology , invasive species , genetic variation , genetics , materials science , demography , physics , neuroscience , sociology , gene , composite material , thermodynamics
Invasive species often exhibit either evolved or plastic adaptations in response to spatially varying environmental conditions. We investigated whether evolved or plastic adaptation was driving variation in shell morphology among invasive populations of the New Zealand mud snail ( P otamopyrgus antipodarum ) in the western United States. We found that invasive populations exhibit considerable shell shape variation and inhabit a variety of flow velocity habitats. We investigated the importance of evolution and plasticity by examining variation in shell morphological traits 1) between the parental and F 1 generations for each population and 2) among populations of the first lab generation (F 1 ) in a common garden, full‐sib design using Canonical Variate Analyses (CVA). We compared the F 1 generation to the parental lineages and found significant differences in overall shell shape indicating a plastic response. However, when examining differences among the F 1 populations, we found that they maintained among‐population shell shape differences, indicating a genetic response. The F 1 generation exhibited a smaller shell morph more suited to the low‐flow common garden environment within a single generation. Our results suggest that phenotypic plasticity in conjunction with evolution may be driving variation in shell morphology of this widespread invasive snail.