Detailseite
Projekt
Adaptation to environmental warming? Microevolution in the protists Paramecium and Coleps
Antragsteller
Professor Dr. Thomas U. Berendonk
Fachliche Zuordnung
Hydrogeologie, Hydrologie, Limnologie, Siedlungswasserwirtschaft, Wasserchemie, Integrierte Wasserressourcen-Bewirtschaftung
Förderung
Förderung von 2004 bis 2011
Projektkennung
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 5429980
How global warming will affect the species diversity of ecological communities has been shown in a variety of studies. However, only a few studies have tested how environmental warming may affect the genetic variation of populations and how this might change in turn the interactions in ecological communities. Although selection experiments are an uniquely suited tool to address these questions, almost none have been performed for aquatic organisms. Here we propose to use Paramecium caudatum as an ideal organism to perform experiments, which test the influence of global warming on the genetic structure of populations. Due to fast generation time, it is well suited for these experiments, this is specifically the case for the increase in average winter temperatures. The extent to which populations or lineages within a species are locally adapted to the prevailing temperatures and temperature changes may have strong implications for the population survival and genetic composition under a potentially rapidly changing thermal regime. Consequently, we assemble experimental populations of clonal lineages, which originate from pond and stream populations throughout Europe. Using molecular methods, we are able to detect individual lineages within a selection experiment. We will test a) if elevated average summer and winter temperatures and b) an increase in temperature extremes will reduce the genetic variation of this experimental population and if this effect is stronger for the stream populations than for the pond populations, which experience in their natural habitat stronger temperature changes than the stream populations. Eventually, we would like to test if due to the genetic change of the populations it would come to a mismatch in the predator-prey relationship between bacteria (Escherichia coli) and P. caudatum.
DFG-Verfahren
Schwerpunktprogramme
Beteiligte Person
Professor Dr. Martin Schlegel
