Climate change drives microevolution in a wild bird

To ensure long-term persistence, organisms must adapt to climate change, but an evolutionary response to a quantified selection pressure driven by climate change has not been empirically demonstrated in a wild population. Here, we show that pheomelanin-based plumage colouration in tawny owls is a hi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2011-02, Vol.2 (1), p.208, Article 208
Main Authors: Karell, Patrik, Ahola, Kari, Karstinen, Teuvo, Valkama, Jari, Brommer, Jon E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/181/2474
631/601
704/158/2165
Adaptation, Biological - genetics
Adaptation, Biological - physiology
Animals
Biological Evolution
Climate Change
Humanities and Social Sciences
Melanins
Models, Genetic
multidisciplinary
Pigmentation - genetics
Pigmentation - physiology
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Selection, Genetic
Snow
Strigiformes - genetics
Strigiformes - physiology
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Summary:To ensure long-term persistence, organisms must adapt to climate change, but an evolutionary response to a quantified selection pressure driven by climate change has not been empirically demonstrated in a wild population. Here, we show that pheomelanin-based plumage colouration in tawny owls is a highly heritable trait, consistent with a simple Mendelian pattern of brown (dark) dominance over grey (pale). We show that strong viability selection against the brown morph occurs, but only under snow-rich winters. As winter conditions became milder in the last decades, selection against the brown morph diminished. Concurrent with this reduced selection, the frequency of brown morphs increased rapidly in our study population during the last 28 years and nationwide during the last 48 years. Hence, we show the first evidence that recent climate change alters natural selection in a wild population leading to a microevolutionary response, which demonstrates the ability of wild populations to evolve in response to climate change. Organisms are expected to adapt to climate change because of selection pressures. Here, the authors demonstrate that brown morphs of Finnish owls are selected against in winters with plentiful snow, and concordantly, increasing winter temperatures and lower snow fall results in the selection of the brown morph.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms1213