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Raymond B Huey

Publications and source records attributed to Raymond B Huey.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Sexual size dimorphism in a Drosophila clade, the D. obscura group.

The Drosophila obscura clade consists of about 41 species, of which 20 were used for analyses of wing and thorax length. Our primary goal was to investigate the magnitude of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) of these traits within this clade and to test Rensch's Rule [when females are larger than males, SSD (e.g., female/male ratio) should decrease with body size]. Our secondary goal was methodological and involved evaluating for these flies alternative measures of SSD (female/male ratio, female/male absolute difference, female/male relative difference), developing a bootstrap method to estimate the magnitude of intraspecific variation in SSD, and applying a new method of estimating allometric relationships that is phylogenetically based and incorporates error variance in both traits. All indices of SSD were strongly correlated for both size traits. Nevertheless, female/male ratio is the best index here: it is easily interpretable and essentially independent of size. For both traits, SSD (F/M) varied interspecifically, showed a strong phylogenetic signal, but did not differ for the main phylogenetic subgroups or correlate with latitude. Factors underlying variation in SSD in this clade are elusive and might include genetic drift. SSD (wing) tended to decrease with increasing size, as predicted by Rensch's Rule, though not consistently so. SSD (thorax) was unrelated to size. However, analysis of published data for thorax length of Drosophila spp. (N=42) with a larger size range showed that SSD decreased significantly with increasing size (consistent with Rensch's Rule), suggesting our ability to detect SSD-size relations in the D. obscura data may be limited by low statistical power.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Global genetic change tracks global climate warming in Drosophila subobscura.

Comparisons of recent with historical samples of chromosome inversion frequencies provide opportunities to determine whether genetic change is tracking climate change in natural populations. We determined the magnitude and direction of shifts over time (24 years between samples on average) in chromosome inversion frequencies and in ambient temperature for populations of the fly Drosophila subobscura on three continents. In 22 of 26 populations, climates warmed over the intervals, and genotypes characteristic of low latitudes (warm climates) increased in frequency in 21 of those 22 populations. Thus, genetic change in this fly is tracking climate warming and is doing so globally.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Thermodynamics constrains the evolution of insect population growth rates: "warmer is better".

Diverse biochemical and physiological adaptations enable different species of ectotherms to survive and reproduce in very different temperature regimes, but whether these adaptations fully compensate for the thermodynamically depressing effects of low temperature on rates of biological processes is debated. If such adaptations are fully compensatory, then temperature-dependent processes (e.g., digestion rate, population growth rate) of cold-adapted species will match those of warm-adapted species when each is measured at its own optimal temperature. Here we show that cold-adapted insect species have much lower maximum rates of population growth than do warm-adapted species, even when we control for phylogenetic relatedness. This pattern also holds when we use a structural-equation model to analyze alternative hypotheses that might otherwise explain this correlation. Thus, although physiological adaptations enable some insects to survive and reproduce at low temperatures, these adaptations do not overcome the "tyranny" of thermodynamics, at least for rates of population increase. Indeed, the sensitivity of population growth rates of insects to temperature is even greater than predicted by a recent thermodynamic model. Our findings suggest that adaptation to temperature inevitably alters the population dynamics of insects. This result has broad evolutionary and ecological consequences.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed2006

Living history of physiology: Carl Gans.

In 2005, The American Physiological Society initiated The Living History of Physiology Project to recognize senior members who have made extraordinary contributions during their career to the advancement of the discipline and profession of physiology. Each Eminent Physiologist will be interviewed for archival purposes, and the video tape will be available from the American Physiological Society Headquarters. In addition, a biographical profile of the recipient will be published in Advances in Physiology Education.

History, 20th Century↗
PubMed2005

Hypoxia, global warming, and terrestrial late Permian extinctions.

A catastrophic extinction occurred at the end of the Permian Period. However, baseline extinction rates appear to have been elevated even before the final catastrophe, suggesting sustained environmental degradation. For terrestrial vertebrates during the Late Permian, the combination of a drop in atmospheric oxygen plus climate warming would have induced hypoxic stress and consequently compressed altitudinal ranges to near sea level. Our simulations suggest that the magnitude of altitudinal compression would have forced extinctions by reducing habitat diversity, fragmenting and isolating populations, and inducing a species-area effect. It also might have delayed ecosystem recovery after the mass extinction.

Altitude↗
PubMed2004

A time series of evolution in action: a latitudinal cline in wing size in South American Drosophila subobscura.

Drosophila subobscura is geographically widespread in the Old World. Around the late 1970s, it was accidentally introduced into both South and North America, where it spread rapidly over broad latitudinal ranges. This invading species offers opportunities to study the speed and predictability of trait evolution on a geographic scale. One trait of special interest is body size, which shows a strong and positive latitudinal cline in many Drosophila species, including Old World D. subobscura. Surveys made about a decade after the invasion found no evidence of a size cline in either North or South America. However, a survey made in North America about two decades after the invasion showed that a conspicuous size cline had evolved and (for females) was coincident with that for Old World flies. We have now conducted parallel studies on 10 populations (13 degrees of latitude) of flies, collected in Chile in spring 1999. After rearing flies in the laboratory for several generations, we measured wing sizes and compared geographic patterns (versus latitude or temperature) for flies on all three continents. South American females have now evolved a significant latitudinal size cline that is similar in slope to that of Old World and of North American flies. Rates of evolution (haldanes) for females are among the highest ever measured for quantitative traits. In contrast, the size cline is positive but not significant for South or North American males. At any given latitude, South American flies of both sexes are relatively large; this in part reflects the relatively cool climate of coastal Chile. Interestingly, the sections of the wing that generate the size cline for females differ among all three continents. Thus, although the evolution of overall wing size is predictable on a geographic scale (at least for females), the evolution of size of particular wing components is decidedly not.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Behavioral drive versus behavioral inertia in evolution: a null model approach.

Some biologists embrace the classical view that changes in behavior inevitably initiate or drive evolutionary changes in other traits, yet others note that behavior sometimes inhibits evolutionary changes. Here we develop a null model that quantifies the impact of regulatory behaviors (specifically, thermoregulatory behaviors) on body temperature and on performance of ectotherms. We apply the model to data on a lizard (Anolis cristatellus) and show that thermoregulatory behaviors likely inhibit selection for evolutionary shifts in thermal physiology with altitude. Because behavioral adjustments are commonly used by ectotherms to regulate physiological performance, regulatory behaviors should generally constrain rather than drive evolution, a phenomenon we call the "Bogert effect." We briefly review a few other examples that contradict the classical view of behavior as the inevitable driving force in evolution. Overall, our analysis and brief review challenge the classical view that behavior is invariably the driving force in evolution, and instead our work supports the alternative view that behavior has diverse--and sometimes conflicting--effects on the directions and rates at which other traits evolve.

Altitude↗
PubMed2003

Evolutionary pace of chromosomal polymorphism in colonizing populations of Drosophila subobscura: an evolutionary time series.

Biologists have long debated the speed, uniformity, and predictability of evolutionary change. However, evaluating such patterns on a geographic scale requires time-series data on replicate sets of natural populations. Drosophila subobscura has proven an ideal model system for such studies. This fly is broadly distributed in the Old World, but was introduced into both North and South America just over two decades ago and then spread rapidly. Rapid, uniform, and predictable evolution would be demonstrated if the invading flies evolved latitudinal clines that progressively converged on those of the native populations. Evolutionary geneticists quickly capitalized on this opportunity to monitor evolutionary dynamics. Just a few years after the introduction, they surveyed chromosomal inversion frequencies in both North and South America. On both continents they detected incipient latitudinal clines in chromosome inversion frequencies that almost always had the same sign with latitude as in the Old World. Thus the initial evolution of chromosomal polymorphisms on a continental scale was remarkably rapid and consistent. Here we report newer samples of inversion frequencies for the colonizing populations: the time series now spans almost one decade for North America and almost two decades for South America. Almost all inversions in the New World continue to show the same sign of frequency with latitude as in the Old World. Nevertheless, inversion clines have not consistently increased in steepness over time; nor have they consistently continued to converge on the Old World baseline. However, five arrangements in South America show directional, continentwide shifts in frequency. Overall, the initial consistency of clinal evolutionary trajectories seen in the first surveys seems not to have been maintained.

Animals↗