Responses to Climate Change, Evolution and

M. W. Kelly, Louisiana State University
B. Thapa, Louisiana State University

Abstract

© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Climate change may put as much as 35% of the earth's biota at risk of extinction. Studies of evolutionary responses to climate change seek to understand both past responses to climate and the role that evolutionary adaptation might play in increasing species' resilience to the effects of future change. We discuss several methods for documenting evolutionary responses to recent climate change, including resurrection ecology, common-garden experiments, quantitative genetic analyses, and molecular genetics. We conclude with a discussion of the ways that evolutionary thinking can be incorporated into management efforts, in an attempt to minimize biodiversity losses from climate change.