How a Species Evolved Fast Enough to Save Itself from Extinction (msn.com) 24
California saw its worst drought in 10,000 years between 2012 and 2015, remembers the Washington Post. And yet genetic analyses of California's scarlet monkeyflower "found that many rapidly evolved... allowing them to cope with water scarcity and rebound from decline."
"The fact that certain organisms are able to adapt just because of genetics that are already present is a great source of hope," said Daniel Anstett, a plant biologist at Cornell University and lead author on a new study on the issue. "It's one more arrow in the quiver of different ways that populations might be able to survive the massive climate change we're inflicting on the planet." The recovery of [Sequoia National Park's] scarlet monkeyflowers offers rare, real-world evidence of what scientists call "evolutionary rescue," according to the study published Thursday in the journal Science. It suggests that some species may be able to evolve quickly enough to keep up with the accelerating consequences of human-caused warming — essentially saving themselves from extinction.
This discovery could help people decide how to distribute limited conservation funds by pinpointing which species have enough genetic diversity to be resilient, ecologists Mark Urban and Laurinne Balstad, who were not involved in the study, wrote in a separate analysis published by Science. "The challenge going forward is to identify when evolutionary rescue is possible, when it is not, and how to rescue those species that cannot rescue themselves," Urban and Balstad wrote.
This discovery could help people decide how to distribute limited conservation funds by pinpointing which species have enough genetic diversity to be resilient, ecologists Mark Urban and Laurinne Balstad, who were not involved in the study, wrote in a separate analysis published by Science. "The challenge going forward is to identify when evolutionary rescue is possible, when it is not, and how to rescue those species that cannot rescue themselves," Urban and Balstad wrote.
monkey flowers? (Score:2, Offtopic)
That's a hell of a place to put monkeyflowers. There are no monkeys in California, well not outside of Sacramento anyway.
Squids do it better (Score:3)
There is a really interesting article about how octopuses and squids can change how their own DNA works by manipulating RNA.
https://www.sciencenews.org/ar... [sciencenews.org]
Note how the RNA editing is triggered by temperature change - a major advantage in the fight against global warming.
Re: "the quiver of different ways" (Score:3)
Because it is normally an incredibly slow process and scientists get excited when something acts differently than expected.
Re: (Score:2)
And yet your only post is calling me names. Why not respond to any of my actual points? Could it be projection?
Re: (Score:2)
> That's what evolution is, the only question is how rapidly it occurs. Rapid evolution isn't a new discovery.
He's not claiming relatively rapid evolution is a new discovery. Abstract : https://www.science.org/doi/10... [science.org]
The rate of useful change depends on a multitude of factors, one higher level concept is the idea of evolutionary rescue.
"genetic rescue vs evolutionary rescue" in google brought up some interesting information.
10-15 years? that's awfully fast (Score:2)
could it be some preexisting capability that wasn't used before but it is now so we observe it for the first time?
Re: (Score:3)
could it be some preexisting capability that wasn't used before but it is now so we observe it for the first time?
Yeah, as is often the case the headline and MSM article seem to confuse the claim and findings.
afaict the underlying paper and commentary article are about trying to quantify and predict which populations can do this and which can't. And, as you surmise, it's not even that the capability wasn't used before, it's that some populations had diversity among individuals in some drought tolerance traits... and this allowed the population to evolve/survive.
Whereas diversity in not drought related genes didn't hel
Re: (Score:2)
Yes.
California has a long standing pattern of swapping from drought to flood and back every few years. Plants and animals have adapted to this pattern. The researchers even stated that what they observed was a change in the expression of existing genes: "able to adapt just because of genetics that are already present".
This is not fast evolution in action, but the expression of adaptation to a long term weather pattern. Like bears hibernating in the winter is not something that they suddenly evolve in the
Re: (Score:3)
The capability has been used before. The last 2 million years of climate yo-yos in and out a glacial episodes has put a premium on ability to adapt.
As glaciers come and go so do the rain bands, borders of the tropics, sea levels, etc. it not just the areas outside the tropics that get to play.
This stuff grows all over. (Score:3)
Quick wiki check Mimulus [wikipedia.org] shows this genus grows in numerous climes. Looking at this another way, cacti are drought tolerant, but still grow in rainy places.
Re: This stuff grows all over. (Score:3)
Lions and tigers are in the same genus and don't share habitat. Tigers dying off does not change anything for lions.
Re: (Score:2)
Lions and tigers are in the same genus and don't share habitat.
But the possibility of interbreeding exists. Especially as they both exist now in one country (modern India, though perhaps not in the same regions), and they may have existed together in other regions of the Old World in the past, before human populations increased.
"Diversity" is a dirty word (Score:1)
All our genes must sail in the same direction
Those monkeyflowers better watch out for tiger lilies
Re: (Score:2)
Yes! If those monkey flowers make too much trouble, Tiger Lily [wikipedia.org] will pluck them all.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
"To evolve would be to change species and probably more like changing its genus or even family; usually it also means to go from simpler to more complex."
LOL, it's not evolution until a flower turns into a space ship.
"Can we please us the correct word?"
You start.
This could get interesting (Score:1)
Coyotes, ... (Score:2)
Junk DNA and Retrovirus, Greg Bear's Darwins Radio (Score:1)
What, you forgot about the moths? (Score:1)
But I guess that was too long ago to make political points with.