Tiny Fish Evolved To Tolerate Colder Temperature In Three Years

By JerseyLegend - 08-17-2010, 01:48 PM - Boxden > The Faculty of Science


		University of British Columbia researchers have observed one of the fastest evolutionary responses ever recorded in wild populations. In as little as three years, stickleback fish developed tolerance for water temperature 2.5 degrees Celsius lower than their ancestors. The study, published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provides the some of the first experimental evidence that evolution may help populations survive effects of climate change. Measuring three to 10 centimetres, stickleback fish originated in the ocean but began populating freshwater lakes and streams following the last ice age. Over the past 10,000 years, marine and freshwater sticklebacks have evolved different physical and behavioural traits, making them ideal models for Darwin's natural selection theory. "By testing the temperature tolerance of wild and lab-raised sticklebacks, we were able to determine that freshwater sticklebacks can tolerate lower temperatures than their marine counterparts," says lead author Rowan Barrett from the UBC Department of Zoology. "This made sense from an evolutionary perspective because their ancestors were able to adapt to freshwater lakes, which typically reach colder temperatures than the ocean." To learn how quickly this adaptation took place, Barrett and colleagues from Switzerland and Sweden "recreated history" by transplanting marine sticklebacks to freshwater ponds and found that in as little as three generations (or three years), they were able to tolerate the same minimum temperature as freshwater sticklebacks, 2.5 °C lower than their ancestral populations. "Scientific models have suggested that climate change could result in both a general, gradual increase of average temperatures and an increase in extreme temperatures," says Barrett, who received his PhD last week. "Our study is the first to experimentally show that certain species in the wild could adapt to climate change very rapidly - in this case, colder water temperature. However, this rapid adaptation is not achieved without a cost," says Barrett. "Only rare individuals that possess the ability to tolerate rapid changes in temperature survive, and the number of survivors may not be large enough to sustain the population. It is crucial that knowledge of evolutionary processes is incorporated into conservation and management policy."

Tiny fish evolved to tolerate colder temperature in three years: study

Evolution nonetheless.

08-18-2010, 05:36 PM

I have 4 tanks in my house from 100 gallons down to 5 and I find the guppies in the smaller tanks the most interesting. I can scoop out all but a few and feed em to my bigger fish and within a month the tank is full again. Now I have been trying to mix and match certain colors in a another tanks and it is cool seeing the change.

08-18-2010, 05:55 PM

evolution? !! outta here

God did that !!

also, that's !!ing cool.

my buddy actually said last night 'yea, there might be scientific proof of stuff like evolution, but that doesn't mean i'm wrong if i believe God created all this'

i [pic]'d and chugged another beer

08-18-2010, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by daliff89

evolution? !! outta here

God did that !!

also, that's !!ing cool.

my buddy actually said last night 'yea, there might be scientific proof of stuff like evolution, but that doesn't mean i'm wrong if i believe God created all this'

i [pic]'d and chugged another beer

seriously stop drinking beer. Beer should be ban after what you have said. [pic]

08-18-2010, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by daliff89

evolution? !! outta here

God did that !!

also, that's !!ing cool.

my buddy actually said last night 'yea, there might be scientific proof of stuff like evolution, but that doesn't mean i'm wrong if i believe God created all this'

i [pic]'d and chugged another beer

there is no god

08-19-2010, 08:15 PM

This is one of the innumerable cases of this. Yet people stillll say it's not true because we didn't see anything evolve (speciate).

08-19-2010, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by daliff89

evolution? !! outta here

God did that !!

also, that's !!ing cool.

my buddy actually said last night 'yea, there might be scientific proof of stuff like evolution, but that doesn't mean i'm wrong if i believe God created all this'

i [pic]'d and chugged another beer

Word. All my friends are theists. I don't even smh or roll my eyes anymore. I just ignore it
.

08-19-2010, 10:53 PM

i'm too stubborn for that.

i'm working on it though, trying to let more !! go you know?

like i'm not going to call the dude who quoted my !! and said 'there is no god' a !!ing retard

oops.

09-15-2010, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by smoothlikebutta

there is no god

and you know this how......

notice, it's not a question mark at the end because the answer is YOU DONT

10-16-2010, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by deziking

seriously stop drinking beer. Beer should be ban after what you have said. [pic]

he was being sarcastic with the first point [pic]

10-16-2010, 07:51 AM

Originally Posted by ronin

and you know this how......

notice, it's not a question mark at the end because the answer is YOU DONT

you have to first prove theres a god for him to disprove it

thats like me saying that i worship a flying spaghetti god and you say "there is no such thing as a flying spaghetti god" and i reply "prove it"

lol...its not your job to prove there isnt a spaghetti until i first prove he exists

[pic] [pic]

10-16-2010, 07:02 PM

I'm gonna allow this for the first and only time just to get some traffic here.

but keep it in the knowledge corner

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