Nowhere to hide: some species are unable to adapt to climate change due to their genes

8 Sep 09

Species living in restricted environments such as the tropics may lack adequate variation in their genes and be unable to adapt to climate change, according to a new study.

Adaptation is a physiological or behavioural change that makes an organism better suited to its environment, and more likely to survive and reproduce. Because adaptations usually occur due to a change (or mutation) in a gene, species with a more varied set of genes to begin with, are likely to have a better basis for adaptation.

Professor Ary Hoffmann from the Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research (CESAR), Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne says the new findings suggest specialist species have a fundamental evolutionary limit, and will be unable to respond to future climate changes.

The work was conducted by a team of Melbourne and Monash University researchers from CESAR, and will be published in the journal Science this week. Read the article in Melbourne Newsroom. Read more about the work of the Hoffmann group and CESAR. 

One Editor, 10 Sep 2009