Rapid evolution predicts demographic recovery after extreme drought - PubMed
7 hours ago
- #evolutionary rescue
- #genetic variation
- #climate change
- Populations declining due to climate change may need to evolve to persist.
- Study focuses on scarlet monkeyflower (Mimulus cardinalis) during extreme drought.
- Whole-genome sequencing of 55 populations identified climate-associated loci.
- Population decline was observed range-wide during the drought.
- Rapid evolution varied geographically and influenced population recovery.
- Genetic variation at adaptive loci predicted population recovery, not neutral loci.
- Findings demonstrate the possibility of evolutionary rescue in the wild.