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Snowshoe hares display limited phenotypic plasticity to mismatch in seasonal camouflage

As duration of snow cover decreases owing to climate change, species undergoing seasonal colour moults can become colour mismatched with their background. The immediate adaptive solution to this mismatch is phenotypic plasticity, either in phenology of seasonal colour moults or in behaviours that re...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zimova, Marketa, Mills, L. Scott, Lukacs, Paul M., Mitchell, Michael S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3973274/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24619446
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0029
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author Zimova, Marketa
Mills, L. Scott
Lukacs, Paul M.
Mitchell, Michael S.
author_facet Zimova, Marketa
Mills, L. Scott
Lukacs, Paul M.
Mitchell, Michael S.
author_sort Zimova, Marketa
collection PubMed
description As duration of snow cover decreases owing to climate change, species undergoing seasonal colour moults can become colour mismatched with their background. The immediate adaptive solution to this mismatch is phenotypic plasticity, either in phenology of seasonal colour moults or in behaviours that reduce mismatch or its consequences. We observed nearly 200 snowshoe hares across a wide range of snow conditions and two study sites in Montana, USA, and found minimal plasticity in response to mismatch between coat colour and background. We found that moult phenology varied between study sites, likely due to differences in photoperiod and climate, but was largely fixed within study sites with only minimal plasticity to snow conditions during the spring white-to-brown moult. We also found no evidence that hares modify their behaviour in response to colour mismatch. Hiding and fleeing behaviours and resting spot preference of hares were more affected by variables related to season, site and concealment by vegetation, than by colour mismatch. We conclude that plasticity in moult phenology and behaviours in snowshoe hares is insufficient for adaptation to camouflage mismatch, suggesting that any future adaptation to climate change will require natural selection on moult phenology or behaviour.
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spelling pubmed-39732742014-05-07 Snowshoe hares display limited phenotypic plasticity to mismatch in seasonal camouflage Zimova, Marketa Mills, L. Scott Lukacs, Paul M. Mitchell, Michael S. Proc Biol Sci Research Articles As duration of snow cover decreases owing to climate change, species undergoing seasonal colour moults can become colour mismatched with their background. The immediate adaptive solution to this mismatch is phenotypic plasticity, either in phenology of seasonal colour moults or in behaviours that reduce mismatch or its consequences. We observed nearly 200 snowshoe hares across a wide range of snow conditions and two study sites in Montana, USA, and found minimal plasticity in response to mismatch between coat colour and background. We found that moult phenology varied between study sites, likely due to differences in photoperiod and climate, but was largely fixed within study sites with only minimal plasticity to snow conditions during the spring white-to-brown moult. We also found no evidence that hares modify their behaviour in response to colour mismatch. Hiding and fleeing behaviours and resting spot preference of hares were more affected by variables related to season, site and concealment by vegetation, than by colour mismatch. We conclude that plasticity in moult phenology and behaviours in snowshoe hares is insufficient for adaptation to camouflage mismatch, suggesting that any future adaptation to climate change will require natural selection on moult phenology or behaviour. The Royal Society 2014-05-07 /pmc/articles/PMC3973274/ /pubmed/24619446 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0029 Text en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ © 2014 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Zimova, Marketa
Mills, L. Scott
Lukacs, Paul M.
Mitchell, Michael S.
Snowshoe hares display limited phenotypic plasticity to mismatch in seasonal camouflage
title Snowshoe hares display limited phenotypic plasticity to mismatch in seasonal camouflage
title_full Snowshoe hares display limited phenotypic plasticity to mismatch in seasonal camouflage
title_fullStr Snowshoe hares display limited phenotypic plasticity to mismatch in seasonal camouflage
title_full_unstemmed Snowshoe hares display limited phenotypic plasticity to mismatch in seasonal camouflage
title_short Snowshoe hares display limited phenotypic plasticity to mismatch in seasonal camouflage
title_sort snowshoe hares display limited phenotypic plasticity to mismatch in seasonal camouflage
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3973274/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24619446
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0029
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