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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 26, 2025

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications

Published on: January 19, 2018

Slow and population specific evolutionary response to a warming environment.

Marta A Santos^1,2, Marta A Antunes^1,2, Afonso Grandela^1,2

¹cE3c-Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes & CHANGE-Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Lisbon, Portugal.

Scientific Reports

|June 15, 2023

Summary

Drosophila populations show limited evolutionary adaptation to warming environments. Adaptation to rising temperatures was slow and specific to low-latitude populations, highlighting challenges for ectotherms facing rapid climate change.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Climate change adaptation
Ecology

Background:

Global warming necessitates adaptive responses in species to prevent extinction.
Understanding evolutionary potential under progressive warming is crucial but understudied.
Biogeographical history can influence adaptive capacity.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the adaptive responses of Drosophila subobscura populations to different thermal regimes.
To assess the role of historical biogeography in thermal adaptation.
To determine the timeframe for evolutionary adaptation to warming conditions.

Main Methods:

Long-term experimental evolution study.
Utilized Drosophila subobscura populations with distinct biogeographical histories.
Exposed populations to two distinct thermal regimes, including progressive warming.

Main Results:

Significant differences in adaptation were observed between historically differentiated populations.
Adaptation to warming conditions was only evident in low-latitude populations.
Evolutionary adaptation was detected after more than 30 generations.

Conclusions:

Drosophila populations possess some capacity for evolutionary adaptation to warming.
The adaptive response is slow and population-specific.
Rapid climate warming may exceed the adaptive limits of many ectotherms.