Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity in Response to Climate Change in a Wild Bird Population
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · University of Oxford · +3 more institutions
Abstract
Rapid climate change has been implicated as a cause of evolution in poorly adapted populations. However, phenotypic plasticity provides the potential for organisms to respond rapidly and effectively to environmental change. Using a 47-year population study of the great tit (Parus major) in the United Kingdom, we show that individual adjustment of behavior in response to the environment has enabled the population to track a rapidly changing environment very closely. Individuals were markedly invariant in their response to environmental variation, suggesting that the current response may be fixed in this population. Phenotypic plasticity can thus play a central role in tracking environmental change;…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 89.78
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 26
Authors
6- ACAnne Charmantier
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Oxford, Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, University of Edinburgh
- RHR. H. McCleeryCorresponding
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Oxford, Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, University of Edinburgh
- LRL. R. Cole
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Oxford, Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, University of Edinburgh
- CMChris M. Perrins
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Oxford, Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, University of Edinburgh
- LELoeske E. B. Kruuk
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Oxford, Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva, University of Edinburgh
Topics & keywords
- Phenotypic plasticity
- Environmental change
- Parus
- Biology
- Climate change
- Population
- Ecology
- Plasticity
- Climate action