New research reveals how winners & losers from climate change can be identified based on their ability to adapt to rising future temperatures.
In the first study of its kind published in PNAS, Flinders University evolutionary biologists have shown that resilience or vulnerability to future climates is influenced by the thermal conditions of the climatic regions where species evolved.
The study compared thermal tolerance and gene expression (which genes are activated within a cell) in subtropical, desert and temperate Australian rainbowfishes.
Evolutionary biologist Professor Luciano Beheregaray says subtropical species were the winners in future climates because evolution suits their local conditions given these fish have the ability to turn on and off a larger number of heat stress genes in hotter climates.
Read more at Flinders University