Can evolution outpace climate change?
June 9, 2011
The tide pool copepod Tigriopus californicus showed little ability to evolve heat tolerance over 10 generations (credit: Morgan Kelly, UC Davis)
Ecologists at the University of California, Davis have determined that animals and plants may not be able to evolve their way out of the threat posed by climate change.
The ecologists examined the tide pool copepod Tigriopus californicus that is found from Alaska to Baja California, but found that the animals show little ability to evolve heat tolerance.
The researchers grew the short-lived copepods in the lab for 10 generations, subjecting them to increased heat stress to select for more heat-tolerant animals.
At the outset, copepods from different locations showed wide variability in heat tolerance. But within those populations, the ecologists were able to coax about a half-degree Celsius (about one degree Fahrenheit) of increased heat tolerance over 10 generations. And in most groups, the increase in heat tolerance had hit a plateau before that point.
“It’s been assumed that widespread species have a lot of genetic capacity to work with, but this study shows that may not be so,” said Professor Rick Grosberg.
Ref.: M. W. Kelly, E. Sanford, R. K. Grosberg, Limited potential for adaptation to climate change in a broadly distributed marine crustacean, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2011; [DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2011.0542]
Comments (6)
by Daniel
With research like this does anyone really want these people deciding which species lives and which goes extinct? Give me a break! Leave nature to it’s own devices. Help your kids, help your pets and leave swamp critters be.
by Brian H
Anyhow, there is no climate change that wasn’t happening anyway, or that hasn’t previously happened far more dramatically.
Grant-seekers make-work.
by Brian H
10 generations? Gimme a break. This research is junk.
by tim the realist
As i think more about it – as their currrent environment warms, new habitats will open up that were once too cold for them, to live in. They can simply migrate, rather than having to evolve to survive.
by tim the realist
I’m confused? It says “At the outset, copepods from different locations showed wide variability in heat tolerance”
to me this means the lower tolerance Tigriopus Californicus will die off and the higher heat tolerance will survive to keep breeding.
The article talks about average population changes, but that;s not how evolution due to environmental pressure works. Some segment of the population changes until there is a new species, and maybe the old one dies off completely.
Also, since 99.9% of all species have bacome extinct over time, the extinction of this little critter will open up a new habitat for some new lifeform that is better suited to the new environment.
this is all a very natural process that has occurred many times during Earth’s history.
by SuicidalWormPoo
While nature mightn’t be able to change it fast enough, humanity can. Identifying the key players in ecosystems, and changing them to better be adapted to the environment would be a, albeit short term, solution to some links in the chain that could be broken.