Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cryptic variation'

I used microsatellite markers to assess reproductive isolation between cryptic, sympatric lineages of a freshwater catfish (Pimelodella chagresi ). These are "cryptic" lineages because they cannot be distinguished visually on the basis of morphological characters, and currently they are recognized as a single species. Previous analyses utilizing mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) indicated that two highly divergent lineages are present in lower Central America, and that these lineages are the result of independent colonization events from South American source populations. I isolated eight dinucleotide repeats from P. chagresi and designed primers to amplify these microsatellite loci. I sampled fishes from four Panamanian watersheds. The congruence of microsatellite data with mtDNA indicated that these taxa are reproductively isolated and should be considered as separate species despite the lack of morphological differentiation. Both lineages exhibit a high degree of divergence among populations inhabiting isolated freshwater drainages, but the lineages differ in their intra-watershed population structure.

Physiological traits such as standard metabolic rate have been shown to vary up to half an order of magnitude between individuals and species and influence key life history tradeoffs in juvenile salmonids (e.g. smolt timing). The purpose of my thesis research was to examine the relationship between food consumption, dominance and disproportionate feeding on physiological traits and adaptive strategies of juvenile salmonids. Results show that SMR is positively correlated with food consumption and growth in juvenile coho salmon which showed a reduction in SMR under low food and an elevation in SMR under high food (Chapter 2). Comparisons between hatchery and wild juvenile steelhead and coho salmon revealed no difference in Stnadard metabolic rate between wild coho and wild steelhead but a significant difference in the hatchery fish, with hatchery steelhead being higher. In both wild and hatchery populations I found a marked difference in maximal metabolic rate between steelhead and coho, leading to a greater aerobic scope and swim performance in wild steelhead but no difference in the hatchery fish. This result is consistent with a steelhead energy maximizing strategy, habitat partitioning and trade-offs between elevated SMR at higher growth and decreased swim performance. Interestingly, wild steelhead with higher maximum growth, swim performance, and maximum food consumption do not appear to tradeoff increased growth against lower swim performance, as commonly observed for high growth strains. Instead steelhead appear to be trading off higher growth for lower food consumption efficiency; highlighting potential differences in food consumption and digestion strategies as cryptic adaptations that have received little attention. In experiments conducted in semi-natural stream channels, I found that dominant coho salmon were able to achieve higher absolute growth rates compared to smaller subordinates, at high food ration but suffered significantly lower absolute growth at low food ration as larger dominant fish approached the capacity of their habitat (Chapter 4). Overall I demonstrated that the relationship between physiological traits, life history strategy and dominance rank depended on per capita food consumption rates, habitat characteristics (pools vs riffles) and the absolute size of individuals in a dominance hierarchy.

Crypsis can be an important mechanism of predator avoidance for organisms. However, many species exhibit sexual dichromatism, in which the males possess a suite of colorations in order to attract female attention. The resulting differences in crypsis between the males and females can provide insight into the relative strengths of the sexually and naturally selective forces shaping the coloration of the organism, as well as clues regarding potential sensory biases of the selecting sex. In this study, I examine variation in the coloration of four Pacific Northwest populations of the sexually dimorphic and dichromatic polygynous species of jumping spider Habronattus oregonensis and compare the coloration of different body regions of the spiders to their habitats. I also investigate differences in relative size of a male sexual ornament, the enlarged first leg tibia. Field work for this study was conducted in June and July of 2009. The three main foci of this study are 1) to compare the degree of color matching of females and their habitat to the degree of color matching of males and their habitat, evaluating whether sexual selection on males has reduced their degree of crypsis relative to that of females, 2) if there is indeed a difference in crypsis between the sexes, to gauge whether there are similar divergences from crypsis among the populations - both in the quantitative amount of divergences as well as the colorimetric direction of such divergences, and 3) whether there is any variation in sexual ornament size among populations. Male first leg tibia size is a sexual character that is presumably not influenced by habitat coloration; differences in male tibia allometry among populations would provide supporting evidence for the hypothesis that sexual selection is indeed maintaining phenotypic differences among the populations, regardless of habitat location and color. I found a high degree of conformity of hue and chroma between male and female spiders and their habitats, with three notable exceptions. The most extreme difference in coloration between spider and habitat was that of the Gorge and Siskiyou population male anteriors. The anteriors had proportionally less green and more ultraviolet reflectance than their habitat. Second, the Mt. Hood and Tillamook population male abdomens diverged from their habitat in a similar, although less pronounced manner to that of the Gorge and Siskiyou population male anteriors: they had proportionally less green and more UV reflectance. Third, female abdomens of all populations were highly variable in chroma, despite having hues that generally matched their habitat. Tibia area relative to body size of Gorge and Siskiyou population males was significantly smaller than that of Mt. Hood and Tillamook population males. The lower level of background hue matching among males compared to females implies that sexual selection has directly conflicted with natural selection, resulting in impaired crypsis. While the reduced crypsis of the Gorge and Siskiyou population males is centered on their anterior (the primary body region presented to the females during courtship), the deviations from crypsis in the Mt. Hood and Tillamook population males are highest on their abdomen, although the degree of contrast is lower than that of the Gorge and Siskiyou population anteriors. These differences in coloration between the Mt. Hood and Tillamook population male abdomens and their habitats are in the same colorimetric direction as those of the Gorge and Siskiyou population anteriors and their habitat; this may indicate a sensory bias of the females, conserved in all four populations, selecting for male reflectance with a higher UV to green ratio. The fact that Mt. Hood and Tillamook population male abdomens have a more modest reduction in background matching compared to Gorge and Siskiyou population male anteriors may be due to the search methods of flying predators (e.g., spider wasps); the dorsum would presumably be more conspicuous to predators than the anterior, and would thus be subject to more intense selection for crypsis despite sexual selection to the contrary. The variability of abdomen coloration of females of both morphs may indicate that selection for crypsis is less strong among females than among males. One possible reason for this would be if females spent less time in the exposed courtship habitat than males, a conclusion implied by a highly male-skewed sex ratio encountered during field collections. Like the differences in coloration between different males of different populations, the significant differences in male tibia size also imply variability in the intensity of sexual selection. Relative importance of male coloration and tibia size may be weighted differently among populations, operating under similar constraints on reductions in survival accrued by developing these characters. The high degree of variation found among the populations implies that there is a degree of reproductive isolation among the chromatically and morphologically dissimilar populations. However, the similarity of the environments in which the populations existed, the close geographic proximity of some of the dissimilar populations, and the lack of any substantial geographic boundaries between the populations imply that this isolation is not maintained through extrinsic factors. Rather, it would seem that the interpopulational diversity is maintained by sexual selection. However, evidence from morphology and coloration suggest that the generation of this diversity is not evolving exclusively under sexual selection pressure, but rather is constrained to a degree by natural selection.

L’originalité du golfe de Gabès (Sud de la Tunisie) a été reconnue par les malacologistes depuis le19ème siècle mais reste mal définie. Les espèces de cette région présentent des caractères morphologiques qui ont conduit à l’établissement de variétés, sous-espèces et espèces faiblement caractérisées. Certains auteurs les traitent comme des taxons endémiques tandis que d'autres les considèrent comme de simples variants locaux d'espèces à large répartition méditerranéenne. Le manque d’information concernant la valeur taxonomique de ces caractères morphologiques ne permet pas de traiter de façon robuste la question de l’endémisme dans le golfe de Gabès. Le premier objectif est de réviser le statut taxonomique des mollusques du golfe de Gabès en s’appuyant sur une approche de taxonomie moléculaire. La confrontation des différents caractères a permis d’identifier ceux qui discriminent correctement les individus en espèces, d’éliminer à l’inverse ceux qui ne remplissent pas cette fonction et d’en redéfinir de nouveaux. Le deuxième objectif est de relier les particularités faunistiques du Golfe à ses caractéristiques océanographiques et de discuter les phénomènes de spéciation qui pourraient être à l’origine de l’endémisme. Nos analyses ont porté sur six genres: Jujubinus (Trochidae), Diodora (Fissurellidae), Ocinebrina, Muricopsis (Muricidae), Aplus (Buccinidae) et Tritia (Nassariidae). L’approche intégrative utilisée a permis de proposer des hypothèses de délimitation d’espèces que nous avons ensuite confrontées aux données morphologiques et géographiques. Au final, l’endémisme est confirmé dans certains cas mais l’hypothèse qu’une partie des espèces décrites du golfe de Gabès ne sont que des variétés éco phénotypiques est également attestée. Notre approche moléculaire a mis aussi en évidence l’existencede nouvelles espèces et d’espèces cryptiques insoupçonnées dans la Méditerranée. Finalement l’hypothèse que le golfe de Gabès est un centre de spéciation est retenue. Plus de données moléculaires (reliées à des données fossiles) d’autres groupes provenant de différentes localités (spécialement du golfe de Syrte) apparaissent toutefois nécessaires
The present Mediterranean marine fauna is the result of a history going back to the Messinian Salinity Crisis, with current biogeographical patterns mostly reflecting Quaternary to modern oceanographic conditions. The Gulf of Gabès, in southern Tunisia, is remarkable for its extreme ecological characteristics that distinguish it from "ambiant" Mediterranean conditions. Starting with the work of malacologists at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, the molluscs of the Gulf of Gabès have been recognized as exhibiting morphological characters that set them apart from more typical forms that occur in the rest of the Mediterranean. At present, 6% of the species of the overall Gulf of Gabès mollusc fauna are treated as valid local endemics. Using an integrative taxonomy approach, combining molecular and morphological data, the objective of the study is to re-evaluate the status of these Gulf of Gabès local forms: are they valid, endemic species or do they represent ecophenotypic variation? Given the young geological age (6-8 ka) of the Gulf, where would local endemics have originated? The gastropod genera Jujubinus (Trochidae), Diodora (Fissurellidae), Tritia (Nassariidae) Ocinebrina (Muricidae), Muricopsis (Muricidae) and Aplus (Buccinidae) all have in common non-planktotrophic larval development. Our integrative approach confirms the validity of some of the endemic taxa, but also infirm that others are not valid species; molecular data also reveal unsuspected cryptic lineages both within and outside the Gulf. Regarding the question of the origin of the endemic species, various hypotheses have been proposed, one of them being that the Gulf of Gabès is a “speciation factory”. To formally test this hypothesis, more molecular data (coupled with fossil record data) are needed from other species groups and from other localities in the Mediterranean (specifically the Gulf of Syrte)

La température est le paramètre abiotique qui influence de façon majoritaire les traits d’histoire de vie des espèces ectothermes. Pour appréhender les relations entre physiologie, environnement et histoire évolutive et leur influence respective sur la délimitation des aires de distribution des espèces, ce travail exploite les caractéristiques thermiques du milieu souterrain. Les résultats réfutent l’hypothèse de sténothermie des deux organismes hypogés étudiés Niphargus rhenorhodanensis et Proasellus valdensis et prouvent que l’histoire évolutive, la dispersion ou la compétition sont des paramètres importants dans l’établissement des aires de distribution des espèces souterraines. En outre, ce travail caractérise pour la première fois chez des organismes souterrains, un gène codant pour des protéines de choc thermique et montre l’importante sensibilité cellulaire de N. rhenorhodanensis face à une augmentation de température
Temperature is the abiotic factor that most influences the life-history traits of ectothermic organisms. In order to study the relationships between physiology, environment and evolutionary history and their respective role in the determination of species distribution areas, this work takes advantage of the thermal caracteristics of subterranean aquatic biotopes. Our results refuted stenothermy in both studied hypogean organisms Niphargus rhenorhodanensis and Proasellus valdensis and they showed that evolutionary history, dispersal and competition are important factors that determine the distribution of subterranean species. Moreover, this work characterized for the first time in subterranean organisms a gene encoding heat shock proteins and demonstrated the high cellular sensitivity of N. rhenorhodanensis to increased water temperature

Nous assistons au développement rapide des solutions de diffusion de contenus sur des systèmes, où en plus des traditionnelles corruptions de l'information dans les couches basses, se pose le problème des pertes de paquets d'informations. Le besoin de fiabiliser ces systèmes de transmission a conduit à l'émergence de codes correcteurs d'effacements, qui grâce à l'ajout d'informations redondantes, permettent de reconstruire l'information perdue. Dans cette thèse nous abordons le problème de la conception de codes à effacements ayant de bonnes capacités de correction et dont les algorithmes de décodage possèdent une complexité permettant d'atteindre des débits élevés. Pour cela, nous avons choisi de travailler conjointement sur les codes et sur leur implémentation au sein d'un codec logiciel, et plus particulièrement sur les algorithmes de décodage. La première partie de nos travaux montre que des solutions basées sur les codes “Low-Density Parity-Check” (LDPC) permettent d'obtenir d'excellents résultats. En particulier lorsque ces codes sont décodés avec un décodeur hybride IT/ML qui permet d'obtenir des capacités de corrections proches de l'optimal, tout en conservant une complexité acceptable. De plus, nous montrons que grâce à l'utilisation de codes LDPC structurés la complexité du décodage ML peut être largement réduite. Nous étudions ensuite le développement de systèmes combinant un code à effacements et des fonctionnalités cryptographiques. Les systèmes résultants permettent de réduire la complexité globale du système tout en garantissant un niveau de sécurité élevé. Finalement, nous présentons une technique de tolérance aux fautes basée sur des codes correcteurs pour des applications de multiplications matricielles. Cette technique nous permet de construire un système de calcul distribué sur plateforme P2P tolérant efficacement aussi bien les pannes franches que les erreurs malicieuses.

The biological diversity on planet Earth is astounding. Understanding the origins of this diversity, and how it is maintained, are the twin goals of ecology and evolutionary biology. An early and oft-repeated insight in this investigation is that that similar organisms cannot coexist indefinitely. Theory predicts that individuals and species will compete for limited resources and whichever has even a slight advantage will drive all others extinct in a process known as ‘competitive exclusion’. By diversifying, species avoid competition, thereby ‘stabilizing’ their coexistence. Yet natural systems often display levels of diversity that are surprisingly high, given this theory and investigations of how the similarity of coexisting species is maintained have received much less attention. Using a combination of field studies and experiments I demonstrate that highly similar species of freshwater amphipods may compete for resources without resulting in competitive exclusion. These findings suggest that there exist a range of interactions among Hyalella amphipods, ranging from strong stabilizing effects due to ecological trade-offs, to weakly stabilizing effects, to a total lack of stabilizing effects among various pairs of species in this system. These findings demonstrate how the relative strength of stabilizing forces may vary among coexisting species. Although much effort has been dedicated to enumerating and classifying the ways in which ecological and evolutionary forces promote diversity among species, there has been far less attention paid to mechanisms such as convergent evolution, habitat filtering, competition for non-substitutable resources, and non-ecological speciation, among others. I surveyed current theory that may explain the high levels of similarity among species often found in natural systems. I describe how several ecological and evolutionary mechanisms may operate to promote the coexistence of similar species and present results from new theoretical combinations of mechanisms to demonstrate how they may further act in concert with one another.
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Baetis harrisoni Barnard is a mayfly frequently encountered in river studies across Africa, but the external morphological features used for identifying nymphs have been observed to vary subtly between different geographic locations. It has been associated with a wide range of ecological conditions, including pH extremes of pH 2.9–10.0 in polluted waters. We present a molecular study of the genetic variation within B. harrisoni across 21 rivers in its distribution range in southern Africa.

Baetis harrisoni Barnard is a mayfly frequently encountered in river studies across Africa, but the external morphological features used for identifying nymphs have been observed to vary subtly between different geographic locations. It has been associated with a wide range of ecological conditions, including pH extremes of pH 2.9–10.0 in polluted waters. We present a molecular study of the genetic variation within B. harrisoni across 21 rivers in its distribution range in southern Africa.

Ranunculus trichophyllus agg. (thread-leaved water crowfoot) represents a taxonomically challenging group of aquatic plants in which the presence of several significantly different genotypes and the genome size variation have been recently revealed. The results of previous studies suggest that cryptic taxa occur in this group, being so far overlooked due to considerable morphological reduction and extensivephenotypic plasticity. In this thesis, the variation and genetic relationships of four morphologically similar homophyllous water-crowfoot species was critically assessed in the area of Central Europe, using a combination of modern biosystematic methods (flow cytometry, direct DNA sequencing, morphometric analyses), specially focusing on the complex of R. trichophyllus.. The genome size analysis via flow cytometry was confirmed as a suitable method for determining the studied species; further, several hybrid combinations were revealed using this approach. However, recent interspecific hybridization is rather infrequent in the interest group. The results of DNA analyses indicate an importance of hybridization events in the evolution of sect. Batrachium: all the polyploid taxa studied are probably of allopolyploid origin. Two cryptic taxa within the traditionally recognized species R. trichophyllus have...

碩士
國立臺南大學
美術學系碩士班
102
The subject of this thesis “Crypsis” is based on the social experience of author. And developed into a series of the reflecting what community is projecting on the author. That is the art been presented by the author’s own experience. The subject what the author wants to discuss by the animal’s appearance is the insecurity of human kind who is living with groups, and the action of self-protection for keeping the security distance between humans. The theoretical bases of the creations in this thesis are from the theories of Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, etc. And discussing about the revolution of animals and the psychological changes. After that, by the changing of the pictures’ composition and the medium, the artistic form of expression has been discussed. At the end, according to the design concept of each of the pictures has been explained and analyzed. By varies relations between animals, like the hiding animals in the creations they expect to avoid the disaster and increasing the chance of survive in both physical and psychological by disappear from other’s sight. Through the research this time, author has laid a good foundation of both the extension of theory and the breakthrough of creation. This time of research make author to break through the creating hobbits of the past, and try to enforce the opinions into the Chinese ink wash creations. And define the creations this time as the extension of modern ink wash. Through the inserting of the opinion of crypsis, and hiding the animals in the pictures by using the technic of visual illusion, expecting the viewers can have different feeling with traditional ink wash.

Colours influence numerous aspects of an animal’s ecology and the adaptive significance of colour variation has been intensively studied in diverse taxonomic groups. This study was motivated by the question: Why do garter snakes vary in colour? To answer this question, I focused on Western Terrestrial Garter Snakes, Thamnophis elegans, which exhibit geographic variation in colouration (dark morph vs. light morph), and two different species of garter snake that occur in the same geographic region but vary in colour –light T. elegans and the Common Garter Snake, T. sirtalis. My work provides an objective quantification and analysis of snake colour and evaluates the influence of colour variation on ecological processes such as thermoregulation, crypsis, and antipredator behaviour. I compared body temperatures (Tbs) with available thermal opportunities, both in wild snakes and in a field experiment, to determine how snakes with contrasting colours differ in thermoregulation and temperature-dependent behaviours. Gravid females of the light and dark colour morphs of T. elegans exhibited comparable thermoregulatory behaviour at high temperatures; however, dark T. elegans maintained elevated Tbs when available temperatures dropped. In the field, dark-coloured snakes were more likely to be moving when first detected when Tbs were high, but this trend was reversed in light T. elegans. I quantified crypsis of snakes, in terms of colour and brightness, by measuring the spectral reflectance of snakes and the surrounding habitat. These data were visually modeled from the perspective of potential snake predators and human researchers. Overall, snakes selected basking sites that maximized crypsis and both colour morphs of T. elegans were equally cryptic. There was evidence suggesting that T. sirtalis was more cryptic than light T. elegans to snake predators. I collected a series of behavioural measurements for snakes pre- and post-capture. Light T. elegans were more likely to be moving when originally detected in the field than dark snakes. Distance to cover and injuries were important factors in explaining the antipredator behaviour of snakes in the field. Snakes became generally faster with increasing Tbs, but differences attributable to colour morph were not straightforward. A higher proportion of T. elegans of both colour morphs exhibited some type of movement when exposed to a simulated predatory attack. Thamnophis sirtalis, on the other hand, hung limp and motionless in the air. The less cryptic light T. elegans had a higher probability of having an injury than T. sirtalis but injury patterns between the equally cryptic light and dark T. elegans differed by sex. The relationships between colour and these various traits were complex, but, taken together, they highlighted how thermal ecology, crypsis, and anti-predator behaviours were related to a snake’s visual appearance. These results therefore provide an ecological underpinning for future genetic studies to identify potential candidate genes that may be responsible for the control of colour pattern in garter snakes.
Graduate
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