Rapid evolution to adapt to environmental changes

The secret to surviving the stages of environmental change is to evolve quickly.

A new article in The American Naturalist magazine found that the guppy community in the new environment formed adaptive traits in just a few years. This is one of the few studies that studies the adaptability and survival of a wildlife community.

A research team led by Swanna Pamela Gordon of the University of California, Riverside studied 200 guppies from the Yarra River in Trinidad and put them in two different habitats near the Damier River, where not before There are no guppies. An environment without predators, and the second environment has some fish species that sometimes eat guppies.

Eight years later, the team returned to the guppy community in Damier to learn about their changes in the new environment. The researchers found that females have changed their reproductive function to adapt to the environment. In predatory species, females produce more embryos per reproductive cycle, because when attacked, they may not have a second chance of reproduction. In less dangerous water environments, females produce fewer embryos per breeding cycle.

Guppies.The secret to surviving the stages of environmental change is to evolve quickly.In a new environment, guppies form new adaptations in just a few years.(Photo: iStockphoto).

Finally, the researchers found out whether these adaptive changes really helped the animal community survive. They took some guppies from Yarra, marked them, and left them with the bloody fish that lived in Damier for 8 years. They found that the guppies adapted to the environment at Damier were significantly more likely to survive than the newly introduced group.

Specifically, immature juveniles from the adapted group had a 54 to 59% higher survival rate than those from the newly included group. In the long run, the survival of juveniles is important for the flock's survival, the researchers said.

The fact that the changes discovered only after 8 years shows that evolution can happen very quickly.

The authors write: 'Changes in survival in this study may be an encouraging sign in terms of conservation. However, it must be remembered that the study period is 13-26 generations of guppies. Therefore, these results may not be suitable for longer-life animal studies. '

Refer:
Gordon et al. Adaptive Changes in Life History and Survival following a New Guppy Introduction. The American Naturalist, 2009; 090513093746042 DOI: 10.1086 / 599300