Experimental evolution of environmental tolerance, acclimation, and physiological plasticity in a randomly fluctuating environment

Environmental tolerance curves, representing absolute fitness against the environment, are an empirical assessment of the fundamental niche, and emerge from the phenotypic plasticity of underlying phenotypic traits. Dynamic plastic responses of these traits can lead to acclimation effects, whereby recent past environments impact current fitness. Theory predicts that higher levels of phenotypic plasticity should evolve in environments that fluctuate more predictably, but there have been few experimental tests of these predictions. Specifically, we still lack experimental evidence for the evolution of acclimation effects in response to environmental predictability. Here, we exposed 25 genetically diverse populations of the halotolerant microalgae Dunaliella salina to different constant salinities, or to randomly fluctuating salinities, for over 200 generations. The fluctuating treatments differed in their autocorrelation, which determines the similarity of subsequent values, and thus environmental predictability. We then measured acclimated tolerance surfaces, mapping population growth rate against past (acclimation) and current (assay) environments. We found that experimental mean and variance in salinity caused the evolution of niche position (optimal salinity) and breadth, with respect to not only current but also past (acclimation) salinity. We also detected weak but significant evidence for evolutionary changes in response to environmental predictability, with higher predictability leading notably to lower optimal salinities and stronger acclimation effect of past environment on current fitness. We further showed that these responses are related to the evolution of plasticity for intracellular glycerol, the major osmoregulatory mechanism in this species. However, the direction of plasticity evolution did not match simple theoretical predictions. Our results underline the need for a more explicit consideration of the dynamics of environmental tolerance and its underlying plastic traits to reach a better understanding of ecology and evolution in fluctuating environments.

Automated summary

This study provides experimental evidence for the evolution of acclimation effects in response to environmental predictability. Higher predictability led to lower optimal salinities and stronger acclimation effect of past environment on current fitness. Plasticity evolution was related to the evolution of intracellular glycerol in this species. However, the direction of plasticity evolution did not match theoretical predictions.