NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: How Overwintering Life-Stage Affects Vulnerability to Winter Warming in Butterflies

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2022, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Climate change is profoundly altering environments across the planet, and while previous research has focused on the impacts of warm seasons, some of the most dramatic changes are in winter climate.

To understand the impacts of changing climate on organisms, it is therefore critical to study how temperature-dependent processes will be altered in response to increasing winter temperatures as well. In insects, energy use rates are determined by temperature, and during winter these effects are vital in determining survival and post-winter investment.

Post-winter energetic investment is determined by the overwintering life stage with larvae investing in growth, adults into reproduction, and pupae into both. This research therefore aims to identify how an insect's overwintering life stage impacts its vulnerability to energy depletion caused by warming winters. The Fellow will also provide outreach to diverse audiences that include an international workshop and the general public through the dissemination of the study’s findings.

While the importance of the impacts of changing winters on organisms is starting to be understood, there is little understanding of how key life history characteristics impact the susceptibility of different species. This research aims to establish a generalizable framework that predicts vulnerability to winter energy drain based on overwintering life stage by pairing laboratory experiments with ecophysiological models.

First, energy use rates will be measured in nine species of butterflies that overwinter as adults, larvae, or pupae. Then winter energy use will be linked to reproduction in the laboratory by measuring reproductive output after cold, mild, and warm winter conditions. Energy use rates and associated reproductive outputs for each species will then be used in an ecophysiological model to predict the energetic and reproductive consequences of climate change under several possible scenarios and across geographic ranges.

This will allow for the identification of species and populations that will be especially vulnerable to changing winters. The PI will gain opportunities to learn new experimentation and modeling protocols. Finally, this project aims to develop a modeling workshop that will both teach methods required for scaling physiological data to landscapes and foster international collaboration through the interaction of students at different institutions.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.