Large Differences Over Small Distances: Plasticity in the Shells of Elimia potosiensis (Gastropoda: Pleuroceridae)

摘要

Phenotypic plasticity in freshwater mollusks is a well-known phenomenon, occurring in both bivalves and gastropods. ? Most work on freshwater snail plasticity has focused either on presence/absence of a single factor, or has looked at responses to environmental gradients over large geographical scales. ? Using the pleurocerid snail Elimia potosiensis from a spring and creek in Arkansas, we show a plastic environmental response at a scale thousands of times smaller than was previously known. ? Shells of E. potosiensis exhibit plasticity consist with that seen in other pleurocerids over the course of hundreds of meters. ? Possible explanations for this small-scale plasticity are offered.