Relationships Between Developmental Stability and Fitness: Application for Conservation Biology

TLDR

Conservation biology struggles to detect stressed populations early because direct fitness measures are difficult, expensive, or impractical, so developmental stability—an organism’s ability to buffer development—is viewed as a key component of fitness. The study proposes using developmental stability as a surrogate metric for fitness to enable early warning monitoring of genetic and environmental stresses in natural populations. The authors recommend applying developmental stability measurements as a proxy for direct fitness assessment in conservation and biomonitoring programs. Multiple studies demonstrate a clear link between developmental stability and fitness under genetic and environmental stress.

Abstract

One of the most difficult tasks in conservation biology is identifying populations subject to stress before such stress has a detrimental impact on the population, thus allowing conservation and remedial action to be undertaken. Measuring fitness (fecundity, survival, etc.) changes directly is often difficult, expensive, or impractical. The ability of an organism to buffer its development against disturbances (developmental stability) is often considered an integral component of an individual’s fitness. Data are presented from a number of studies that establish a clear relationship between developmental stability and fitness in response to both genetic and environmental stress. Consequently, I suggest that developmental stability may be used as a surrogate for more direct fitness estimation for use in conservation biology and biomonitoring programs and that is has widespread application as an early warning system for monitoring the effect of genetic and environmental stresses on natural populations.