Quotation of the Day

“Duality of natural history:

- richness in particularities,
- potential union in underlying explanations.”
- Stephen Jay Gould
 Seasonal Adaptation –
Diapause and Dormancy
 I. Introduction
• Seasonal Adaptations
– Escaping seasonal extremes of the
environment
– Categories
• dormancy - escape in time
• migration - escape in space
• polymorphism - change in phenotype to better
cope with situation or in conjunction with other
strategies
 II. Environmental Changes
• Timing
– Duration - short vs. long term
environmental change
– Predictability - cyclic (seasonal) vs acyclic
(aseasonal)
• Response to Variables
  Predictability

Duration acyclic cyclic

short nervous system biological clock

long genetic neurohormonal

 III. Aseasonal
• Adaptations
– Quiescence - reversible state of suppressed
metabolism imposed by conditions beyond certain
thresholds in temperature, moisture, or nutrition
– Aseasonal migration - a movement out of an
unfavorable area to find more favorable site
– Aseasonal polyphenism – environmentally
induced changes in color or structure for
protection or movement
 IV. Seasonal
• Definitions
– Dormancy - seasonally recurring period in
the life cycle of an organism during which
growth, development, and reproduction are
suppressed. 
• aestivation - summer
• autumnal dormancy - fall
• hibernation - winter
• vernal dormancy – spring
 IV. Seasonal
• Definitions
– Diapause - neurohormonally mediated dynamic
state of low metabolic activity.  Occurs in
genetically determined stages. Species specific
in response to token stimuli.  Once diapause is
initiated, it does not terminate with immediate
return to favorable conditions
• diapause syndrome - species specific, dynamic
process
 IV. Seasonal
• Definitions
– Diapause
• token stimuli - environmental factors, not of
themselves unfavorable, that signal changes in
environmental conditions (usually photoperiod
but also temperature, moisture, etc.)
 IV. Seasonal
• Habitat Deterioration
– Non-diapause
• seasonal alteration with decreased metabolism or
• environmentally imposed reduction in metabolism
• includes:
– seasonal polyphenism
– seasonal migration
– dormancy
 IV. Seasonal
• Habitat Deterioration
– Diapause
• diapause mediated phenomena
– dormancy
– seasonal migration
– seasonal polyphenism
• stage-specific trigger (genetically determined) but
may not be diapausing stage; diapause may include
>1 stage,
– e.g. Aedes sierreusis 1 yr life cycle.  2 stage diapause (egg
aestivation and larval hibernation)
 IV. Seasonal
• Habitat Deterioration
– Diapause
• diapause phenology (1-3 regulated by token
stimuli, 4-5 by non-token stimuli and may
include quiescence)
– 1. prediapause
– 2. diapause induction
– 3. diapause maintenance
– 4. post diapause transitional period
– 5. non-diapause period
 IV. Seasonal
• Habitat Deterioration
– Diapause
• diapause syndrome (includes prediapause)
– hormonal mediation - mechanisms differ by stage, also
variation between species
– behavioral expression - different responsiveness to feeding
and reproductive stimuli, movement to dormancy sites (very
short to long range movement, e.g. Monarch), phototactic
and geotactic responses
– physiological adaptations - accumulation of metabolic
reserves (fat body changes from synthesis to storage),
reduced metabolism
 IV. Seasonal
• Habitat Deterioration
– Diapause
• diapause syndrome (includes prediapause)
– morphological expression - functions:
» crypsis or physical protection from predators or injury
(abiotic stressors)
» wing polymorphenism - adjust allocations for dispersal
and movement vs hibernation and reproduction
» color or size changes may be associated with pre or post
diapause development
» no function
» post diapause
 IV. Seasonal
• Habitat Deterioration
– Diapause
• diapause syndrome (includes prediapause)
– for most temperate-zone species no specific
diapause terminating stimulus identified, probably
insects cease responding to diapause maintaining
factors and gradually diapause ends
– for a few species may be terminating stimuli usually
maintained by photoperiod and altered thermal
responses
 IV. Seasonal
• Environmental Regulation of Seasonal
Cycles
– Facultative vs obligatory responses
– Photoperiod
• may regulate entire life cycle for some species,
in other species responses vary (may decrease
after diapause)
• most important single factor
 IV. Seasonal
• Environmental Regulation of Seasonal
Cycles
– Temperature
• may induce diapause (but this is relatively rare)
• may modify photoperiodic response
– Food
• may induce diapause (especially important in tropics)
• more often modifies effects of photoperiod and
temperature
 IV. Seasonal
• Environmental Regulation of Seasonal
Cycles
– Moisture
• role is obscure, but probably important for
some species
V. Ecological Implications of
Seasonal Adaptations
• Accommodation of Environmental
Extremes
– Particularly important basis for
physiological adaptations
– Allows species to exploit more habitats
V. Ecological Implications of
Seasonal Adaptations
• Difference Among Regions
– Clearly diapause important in temperate
zones - best studied here
– Tropics - still have seasonal cycles
(typically wet and dry rather than hot and
cold)
• photoperiod not adequate predictor
• often cycles associated with synchrony with
host plants
V. Ecological Implications of
Seasonal Adaptations
• Variation & Spreading the Risk Theory
– Considerable intraspecific variability in life
history traits; may even see differences in
generation numbers or nature of diapause
in different populations
– Relates to the evolutionary value of
intraspecific variability in phenotypes (and
therefore associated genotypes)
V. Ecological Implications of
Seasonal Adaptations
• Variation & Spreading the Risk Theory
– Spreading the risk theory - formal statement
of the evolutionary value of variability; theory
argues that:
• the longevity of a natural population is an
expression of a low probability that all local
populations fluctuate to extinction either by low or
high densities
• stability can be indicated by the range in maximum
and minimum population densities
V. Ecological Implications of
Seasonal Adaptations
• Evolution
– Tauber et al. argue:
• first, time measurement system (oscillatory or
hourglass) (e.g. circadian) evolved
• next, evolution of environmentally controlled
neuroendocrinological responses adaptive for
some environmental conditions
• finally, neuroendocrinologically controlled
responses are coupled to a seasonally reliable
indicator (token stimulus)