Sentences with phrase «evolutionary change in the population»

Its survival has improved as winters have become warmer... in other words, climate - driven selection has led to an evolutionary change in the population.

Not exact matches

«Much of our historical data about species» population - level responses to climate change comes from observational studies, which can suggest but not confirm causation,» said Anne Marie Panetta, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral researcher in CU Boulder's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EBIO).

Maintenance of biodiversity in a rapidly changing climate will depend on the efficacy of evolutionary rescue, whereby population declines due to abrupt environmental change are reversed by shifts in genetically driven adaptive traits.

In search of better ways to teach the subject, researchers at Michigan State University developed complete evolutionary case studies spanning the gamut from the molecular changes underlying an evolving characteristic to their genetic consequences and effects in populationIn search of better ways to teach the subject, researchers at Michigan State University developed complete evolutionary case studies spanning the gamut from the molecular changes underlying an evolving characteristic to their genetic consequences and effects in populationin populations.

By careful measurements of the population of two species on one tiny island over the course of major weather changes such as El Niño events and droughts, the Grants were able to show that evolutionary changes in beak size and body size can occur in as little as a couple of years.

Neither the selective pressure nor the evolutionary response could have been identified with the methods used by the majority of studies that examine how wild populations respond to environmental changes, which predominantly concentrate on changes in the phenotype.

Although it was first seen in the 1940s to be the evolutionary glue that held species together, and thus a significant evolutionary force, a few decades later when quantitative data on gene flow in plant populations began being collected, this view changed as evidence seemed to indicate that gene flow was not all that significant.

Populations that arise from just a few individuals, however, tend to have members that share a relatively high percentage of DNA — a lack of genetic diversity that can strip them of the evolutionary resources that they may someday need to respond to a deadly new disease, a change in climate, or some other challenge.

The study is the first to show that animal populations can adapt and already have adapted to higher temperatures and increased heat wave frequencies — two results of climate change — by means of evolutionary changes in their heat tolerance.

When we hatch the dormant eggs of water fleas from the past and compare them with the contemporary population, we can reconstruct the evolutionary changes that occurred in that population and examine how they have adapted to the rising temperature of the water in which they live.»

She graduated with a bachelor's in biology from Yale University and received a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology and a master's in ocean sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she examined the effects of ocean climate change on seabird populations.

With support from the CGGH, Jacob is currently pursuing his PhD, with a focus on methods for fine - resolution mapping of Plasmodium parasite population structure, demography events and the detection of recent evolutionary changes in parasite populations.

He has particular interests in (1) the use of ancient DNA methods to document changes in genetic variation through time and phylogenetic relationships of extinct or endangered organisms (especially of the recently extinct Hawaiian avifauna); (2) the use of highly variable genetic markers to measure genetic structure and relatedness, and to ascertain mating systems, in natural populations, and (3) the use of genetics to study the evolutionary interactions between hosts, vectors and infectious disease organisms (e.g., major projects on introduced avian malaria in native Hawaiian birds and invasive chytrid fungus in amphibians).

Initially, when permanent environmental changes occur in a population, individuals bearing the previous average status quo genome experience evolutionary discordance (2,3).

With a background in evolutionary ecology and conservation biology from UC Davis, Allen has a particular interest in bird population responses to urban development, climate change, and other human pressures.