2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Scaling-up effects of intra-specific phenotypic polymorphism on lake ecosystems : experimental approaches
| Project/Area Number |
20370009
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Ecology/Environment
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
OKUDA Noboru 京都大学, 生態学研究センター, 准教授 (30380281)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
TAYASU Ichiro 京都大学, 生態学研究センター, 准教授 (80353449)
YOSHIDA Takehito 東京大学, 総合文化研究科, 准教授 (40447321)
KOKITA Tomoyuki 福井県立大学, 海洋生物資源学部, 講師 (60372835)
KONDOH Michio 龍谷大学, 理工学部, 准教授 (30388160)
NAGATA Toshi 東京大学, 海洋研究所, 教授 (40183892)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2008 – 2011
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| Keywords | 群集 |
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| Research Abstract |
We tested how phenotypic plasticity or polymorphism of algae and fish, which are regarded as primary producers and top-predators in lake ecosystems, respectively, can affect food web and ecosystem properties, using microcosm and mesocosm experimental systems. Taking the advantage of molecular technique, such as transcriptome and QTL analyses, we elucidated that fish trophic polymorphism(planktivory-benthivory species pair) is under the control of polygenic variation in a large number of loci with small additive effects and found that the expression pattern of swimming performance-related genes is shared among different phylogenies with species pair, suggesting the possibility of convergent evolution of adaptation to pelagic environments. We also experimentally demonstrated that fish trophic polymorphism altered not only food web properties, such as food chain length, prey-predator mass ratio and community-average trophic level, but also community respiration as ecosystem functioning through trophic cascading effects. Using theoretical models, we finally corroborated that the evolution of phenotypically plastic or polymorphic traits have ecosystem consequences in terms of food web configuration and stability.
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