A tiny flatworm found commonly on the coasts of western Europe and North America is living proof that species may be able to evolve and adapt to rapid climate change.
Research by the University of Plymouth examined the extent to which the intertidal flatworm Procerodes littoralis was able to regenerate and repair itself when challenged with different sea water conditions.
Repeating a study conducted more than a century earlier it was shown that the response of individuals had changed markedly since then.
The research's co-author, Professor of Marine Zoology John Spicer, supervised Katharine's work and is a world-leading authority on how marine species can adapt to climate change. He added:
"There has been an idea around for the last 15 to 20 years called evolutionary rescue where, faced with rapid climate change, animals evolve to survive. Many, including myself, have doubted the possibility of such rescue, especially over such a short space of time in terms of species evolution. But this study shows it may well be possible in the wild because, in comparing two identical experiments 100 years apart, the animal has changed how it works, its physiology.
"It is proof that evolutionary rescue may exist in the wild, not just in the laboratory, and is a major step forward in our understanding of how species can adapt as the environment around them changes. With the two studies being conducted 50 years before and after the start of the Anthropocene, it also provides a fascinating insight into the effect humans are having on species with whom we share our planet."
The full study - Clayton and Spicer: Evidence for physiological niche expansion of an intertidal flatworm: Evolutionary rescue in the wild - is published in Marine Ecology Progress Series, doi: 10.3354/meps13473.
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