When field experiments yield unexpected results: lessons learned from measuring selection in White Sands lizards.
Determining the adaptive significance of phenotypic traits is key for understanding evolution and diversification in natural populations. However, evolutionary biologists have an incomplete understanding of how specific traits affect fitness in most populations. The White Sands system provides an op...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2015-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118560&type=printable |
| _version_ | 1826586591956566016 |
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| author | Kayla M Hardwick Luke J Harmon Scott D Hardwick Erica Bree Rosenblum |
| author_facet | Kayla M Hardwick Luke J Harmon Scott D Hardwick Erica Bree Rosenblum |
| author_sort | Kayla M Hardwick |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Determining the adaptive significance of phenotypic traits is key for understanding evolution and diversification in natural populations. However, evolutionary biologists have an incomplete understanding of how specific traits affect fitness in most populations. The White Sands system provides an opportunity to study the adaptive significance of traits in an experimental context. Blanched color evolved recently in three species of lizards inhabiting the gypsum dunes of White Sands and is likely an adaptation to avoid predation. To determine whether there is a relationship between color and susceptibility to predation in White Sands lizards, we conducted enclosure experiments, quantifying survivorship of Holbrookia maculate exhibiting substrate-matched and substrate-mismatched phenotypes. Lizards in our study experienced strong predation. Color did not have a significant effect on survival, but we found several unexpected relationships including variation in predation over small spatial and temporal scales. In addition, we detected a marginally significant interaction between sex and color, suggesting selection for substrate matching may be stronger for males than females. We use our results as a case study to examine six major challenges frequently encountered in field-based studies of natural selection, and suggest that insight into the complexities of selection often results when experiments turn out differently than expected. |
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-549a12f21f6d42b1be1c0397d3854a16 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-03-14T16:11:59Z |
| publishDate | 2015-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-549a12f21f6d42b1be1c0397d3854a162025-02-23T05:32:04ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-01102e011856010.1371/journal.pone.0118560When field experiments yield unexpected results: lessons learned from measuring selection in White Sands lizards.Kayla M HardwickLuke J HarmonScott D HardwickErica Bree RosenblumDetermining the adaptive significance of phenotypic traits is key for understanding evolution and diversification in natural populations. However, evolutionary biologists have an incomplete understanding of how specific traits affect fitness in most populations. The White Sands system provides an opportunity to study the adaptive significance of traits in an experimental context. Blanched color evolved recently in three species of lizards inhabiting the gypsum dunes of White Sands and is likely an adaptation to avoid predation. To determine whether there is a relationship between color and susceptibility to predation in White Sands lizards, we conducted enclosure experiments, quantifying survivorship of Holbrookia maculate exhibiting substrate-matched and substrate-mismatched phenotypes. Lizards in our study experienced strong predation. Color did not have a significant effect on survival, but we found several unexpected relationships including variation in predation over small spatial and temporal scales. In addition, we detected a marginally significant interaction between sex and color, suggesting selection for substrate matching may be stronger for males than females. We use our results as a case study to examine six major challenges frequently encountered in field-based studies of natural selection, and suggest that insight into the complexities of selection often results when experiments turn out differently than expected.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118560&type=printable |
| spellingShingle | Kayla M Hardwick Luke J Harmon Scott D Hardwick Erica Bree Rosenblum When field experiments yield unexpected results: lessons learned from measuring selection in White Sands lizards. PLoS ONE |
| title | When field experiments yield unexpected results: lessons learned from measuring selection in White Sands lizards. |
| title_full | When field experiments yield unexpected results: lessons learned from measuring selection in White Sands lizards. |
| title_fullStr | When field experiments yield unexpected results: lessons learned from measuring selection in White Sands lizards. |
| title_full_unstemmed | When field experiments yield unexpected results: lessons learned from measuring selection in White Sands lizards. |
| title_short | When field experiments yield unexpected results: lessons learned from measuring selection in White Sands lizards. |
| title_sort | when field experiments yield unexpected results lessons learned from measuring selection in white sands lizards |
| url | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118560&type=printable |
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