Mini Graduate School – Promotionsverbund

Morphological variability of organisms under environmental stress

Experiments have indicated that morphological variability increases as the deviation from optimal conditions increases. This has been shown for individuals within populations as well as for populations inhabiting different environments. While empirical findings suggest that this is a universal phenomenon, we still do not know whether, (1) this variability has or had evolutionary consequences in the past and for recent organisms, and (2) whether or not this observation applies across organisms. Our approach is innovative because it applies a concept from current evolutionary ecology and molecular biology to paleontology.

Our interdepartmental graduate school was designed for evaluating the relationship between stress factors in the environment, the morphology of organisms and their fitness consequences and thus their evolutionary success. Our overarching scientific concept helps bridging the gap across several disciplines by actively encouraging exchange among students and by addressing a common theme with a variety of organisms and across short and long temporal scales.

Five interrelated subprojects address the following common hypotheses:
1: Irrespective of taxa and temporal scale, within-species morphological variability and asymmetry of individuals increases with increasing stress.
2: Variability within species may be adaptive, i.e. it increases fitness, if the environment is highly variable in time or changes directionally. This can be seen from the development of current ecotypes or from speciation in the past.

Partners

Prof. Dr. Katja Tielbörger (speaker)
PhD Student: Bettina Springer
Fluctuating asymmetry in plants along steep and subtle environmental gradients – the role of biotic interactions
Plant Ecology
Institute for Evolution and Ecology
Department of Biology

Prof. Dr. Klaus Harter
PhD Student: Anne Mohrholz
Molecular analysis of factors determining fluctuating asymmetry in flowers
Plant Physiology
Centre for Molecular Biology of Plants (ZMBP)
Department of Biology

Prof. Dr. Heinz - R. Köhler
PhD student: Leonie Marschner
Morphological variation in Gastropods under extreme stress
Animal Physiological Ecology
Institute for Evolution and Ecology
Department of Biology

Prof. Dr. Michal Kučera
PhD student: Manuel Weinkauf
Symmetry in benthic and planktonic Foraminifera during rapid environmental change: fossil proxies and lab experiments
Micropalaeontology
Department of Geosciences

Prof. Dr. James Nebelsick
PhD student: Diedrich Sievers
Systematic deviation from bilateral symmetry in modern and fossil clypeasteroid sea urchins
Invertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoclimatology
Department of Geosciences