Thermal Adaptation in Animals in the Temperate Zone - A Response to Rapid Climate Warming in Nature?

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The rate at which populations adapt to environmental change, and particularly to the rapid changes in temperature predicted from global warming, is a critical question across the environmental sciences. The investigator's previous research suggests that the primary evolutionary response to climate warming in the temperate zone involves seasonal or photoperiodic adaptations; thermal adaptation appears to be secondary and to require a much longer time (thousands of years) to develop. In this project, the researcher proposes a clever and robust test of the ability of the pitcher-plant mosquito to adapt to recent, rapid temperature changes on a decadal time frame. Mosquito populations were first tested in 1999 for their responses to experimentally controlled thermal environments. The PI will now re-sample these same populations and rear them under the same experimental conditions to determine whether mosquitoes have responded adaptively to temperature increases experienced over the past decade.Results from this research will reveal basic mechanisms that enable some organisms to adapt to climate change while others cannot. Organisms may first adapt to climate change by shifting their seasonal activity in response to photoperiod. The inability of an organism to adapt to rapid thermal changes could quickly limit the resilience that photoperiod adjustment alone permits. Undergraduate students will participate actively in this research. In addition, the project will continue to serve as a 'poster child' for the consequences of rapid environmental change. Results to date have been highlighted in over 30 national and international interviews, in popular magazine articles, on TV and radio broadcases, and in public lectures.