Move or change, an eco-evolutionary dilemma: The case of Collembola

Abstract

The present opinion paper suggests that springtails, which can live above- and/or belowground according to species requirements, have two strategies at their disposal to face environmental hazards, called ‘move’ or ‘change’. Species with poor dispersal capacity, often parthenogenetic, and living mainly in a confined environment, have to adapt themselves by increasing their phenotypic plasticity or letting the environment selecting or adding favourable mutations. Conversely, species with a high dispersal capacity, often sexual and living in a more open environment, may emigrate and immigrate without the need to become better adapted to changing environmental conditions. Advantages and disadvantages of these two tactics are reviewed and their prospective responses to global changes are compared on the light of existing knowledge on this microarthropod group.