Species have few good options when it comes to surviving climate change—they can genetically adapt to new conditions, shift their ranges, or both.
Species have few good options when it comes to surviving climate change—they can genetically adapt to new conditions, shift their ranges, or both.
But new research in PNAS indicates that conflicts between species as they adapt and shift ranges could lead experts to underestimate extinctions, and underscores the importance of landscape connectivity.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Montpellier trying to understand how species might respond to climate change conducted large-scale computer simulations which show that although movement and genetic adaptation to climate change each help maintain biodiversity, these two factors can come into conflict.
Dispersal refers to species movement across landscapes, while adaptation is the evolutionary response of organisms to environmental change. When species both disperse and adapt, faster evolving species prevent slower adapting species from shifting their ranges, driving them to extinction.
Read more at University of British Columbia
Photo Credit: 12019 via Pixabay
