Hybrid breakdown weakens under thermal stress in population crosses of the copepod Tigriopus californicus.

The outcome of hybridization can be impacted by environment conditions, which themselves can contribute to reproductive isolation between taxa. In crosses of genetically divergent populations, hybridization can have both negative and positive impacts on fitness, the balance between which might be tipped by changes in the environment. Genetically divergent populations of the intertidal copepod Tigriopus californicus have been shown to differ in thermal tolerance at high temperatures along a latitudinal gradient. In this study a series of crosses were made between pairs of genetically divergent populations of T. californicus and the thermal tolerance of these hybrids was tested. In most cases the first generation hybrids had relatively high thermal tolerance and second generation hybrids were not generally reduced below the less-tolerant parental population for high temperature tolerance. This pattern contrasts with previous studies from crosses of genetically divergent populations of thi...