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Adaptive responses of animals to climate change are most likely insufficient

Radchuk, Viktoriia ; Hansson, Bengt LU orcid ; Hasselquist, Dennis LU ; Tarka, Maja LU and Kramer-Schadt, Stephanie (2019) In Nature Communications 10(1).
Abstract
Biological responses to climate change have been widely documented across taxa and regions, but it remains unclear whether species are maintaining a good match between phenotype and environment, i.e. whether observed trait changes are adaptive. Here we reviewed 10,090 abstracts and extracted data from 71 studies reported in 58 relevant publications, to assess quantitatively whether phenotypic trait changes associated with climate change are adaptive in animals. A meta-analysis focussing on birds, the taxon best represented in our dataset, suggests that global warming has not systematically affected morphological traits, but has advanced phenological traits. We demonstrate that these advances are adaptive for some species, but imperfect as... (More)
Biological responses to climate change have been widely documented across taxa and regions, but it remains unclear whether species are maintaining a good match between phenotype and environment, i.e. whether observed trait changes are adaptive. Here we reviewed 10,090 abstracts and extracted data from 71 studies reported in 58 relevant publications, to assess quantitatively whether phenotypic trait changes associated with climate change are adaptive in animals. A meta-analysis focussing on birds, the taxon best represented in our dataset, suggests that global warming has not systematically affected morphological traits, but has advanced phenological traits. We demonstrate that these advances are adaptive for some species, but imperfect as evidenced by the observed consistent selection for earlier timing. Application of a theoretical model indicates that the evolutionary load imposed by incomplete adaptive responses to ongoing climate change may already be threatening the persistence of species. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
article, bird, climate change, greenhouse effect, human, meta analysis, morphological trait, nonhuman, publication, quantitative analysis, taxon, Animalia, Aves
in
Nature Communications
volume
10
issue
1
article number
3109
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:85069648148
  • pmid:31337752
ISSN
2041-1723
DOI
10.1038/s41467-019-10924-4
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Export Date: 2 August 2019
id
4d7ac54f-ec38-4ded-9f36-908f2ace1ceb
alternative location
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85069648148&doi=10.1038%2fs41467-019-10924-4&partnerID=40&md5=aae943006c50503c755c95f6d6454e1b
date added to LUP
2019-08-02 11:19:00
date last changed
2024-05-15 18:28:26
@article{4d7ac54f-ec38-4ded-9f36-908f2ace1ceb,
  abstract     = {{Biological responses to climate change have been widely documented across taxa and regions, but it remains unclear whether species are maintaining a good match between phenotype and environment, i.e. whether observed trait changes are adaptive. Here we reviewed 10,090 abstracts and extracted data from 71 studies reported in 58 relevant publications, to assess quantitatively whether phenotypic trait changes associated with climate change are adaptive in animals. A meta-analysis focussing on birds, the taxon best represented in our dataset, suggests that global warming has not systematically affected morphological traits, but has advanced phenological traits. We demonstrate that these advances are adaptive for some species, but imperfect as evidenced by the observed consistent selection for earlier timing. Application of a theoretical model indicates that the evolutionary load imposed by incomplete adaptive responses to ongoing climate change may already be threatening the persistence of species.}},
  author       = {{Radchuk, Viktoriia and Hansson, Bengt and Hasselquist, Dennis and Tarka, Maja and Kramer-Schadt, Stephanie}},
  issn         = {{2041-1723}},
  keywords     = {{article; bird; climate change; greenhouse effect; human; meta analysis; morphological trait; nonhuman; publication; quantitative analysis; taxon; Animalia; Aves}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Communications}},
  title        = {{Adaptive responses of animals to climate change are most likely insufficient}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10924-4}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41467-019-10924-4}},
  volume       = {{10}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}