Precipitation drives global variation in natural selection

Climate change has the potential to affect the ecology and evolution of every species on Earth. While the ecological consequences of climate change are increasingly well documented, the effects of climate on the key evolutionary process driving adaptation—natural selection—is largely unknown. We rep...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Siepielski, A, Morrissey, M, Buoro, M, Carlson, S, Caruso, C, Clegg, S, Coulson, T, DiBattista, J, Gotanda, K, Francis, C, Hereford, J, Kingsolver, J, Augustine, K, Kruuk, L, Martin, R, Sheldon, B, Sletvold, N, Svensson, E, Wade, M, MacColl, A
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2017
Subjects:
North Atlantic
North Atlantic oscillation
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aag2773
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:93c4c082-1e54-48f9-b785-5678e678d6c5
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Summary:Climate change has the potential to affect the ecology and evolution of every species on Earth. While the ecological consequences of climate change are increasingly well documented, the effects of climate on the key evolutionary process driving adaptation—natural selection—is largely unknown. We report that aspects of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration, along with the North Atlantic Oscillation, predicted variation in selection across plant and animal populations throughout many terrestrial biomes, whereas temperature explained little variation. By showing that selection was influenced by climate variation, our results indicate that climate change may cause widespread alterations in selection regimes, potentially shifting evolutionary trajectories at a global scale.

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