The oceans are likely to be altered by major climate changes, but there could come a cost that life doesn’t survive in the event of rapid evolution. Although plasticity enables initial survival under global change conditions it may erode once populations have adapted and lost their ability to withstand new stressors or previously benign environments without further adjustment – limiting resilience overall
The scientists used copepods, a small and humble sea creature that reproduces in about twenty days as their case study. Since this tiny animal takes less than one year for twenty generations to pass by means of natural selection (and not subjective), we can expect its response to climate change over time will be more realistic compared with other organisms who have longer life cycles such as humans or plants which take around 3-4 months at best before producing newborns!
Scientists exposed thousands of copepods to the high temperatures and carbon dioxide levels that are predicted for our oceans, then waited for twenty generations until they took some marine organisms back in time before recording how many offspring were produced by these reseeded populations. As three more passed with continued exposure at elevated conditions along with those initial founders from generation 1-20 – scientists saw an increase of over 30%.
The researchers found that these creatures have the genetic capacity to adapt over twenty generations, evolving in response to rapidly changing environments (a process called “phenotypic plasticity”). They were able to study many changes within their genes related not only to how they managed heat stress but also grew bones when exposed to more acidic waters and produced energy. This suggests these tiny marine animals can be highly resistant towards rapid warming/acidification like future Earth may experience due to environmental factors
The flexibility that helped these copepods evolve over twenty generations seemed to be eroded when they were returned back into their normal environment. Brought up in the initial temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations, it became clear after three generations of re-evolving this ancestral milieu was not possible for them anymore; marine organisms lost tolerance with limited food supply while showing less resilience against new forms of stressors like temperature change or pollution levels rising within water systems
There seems always something exciting happening at any given moment because life never stops changing
“The adaptive response of this species was not perfect. If copepods or other creatures have to go down the same path and spend some of their genetic variation on dealing with climate change, will they be able to tolerate new environmental stresses?” wondered study lead author Melissa Pespeni from the University of Vermont
“It seems like it may not always work out as expected,” said team member DavidταβThis research shows that even if one manages to survive an initial stressful event there is still potential for them to return back into old habits due to prolonged exposure over time.”
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