Adaptive divergence and climate change: Why an evolutionary perspective matters for predicting sensitivity to increasing temperatures 

Dr. Chris Funk

Professor, Colorado State University

Abstract

Our goal is to uncover spatial patterns of vulnerability to climate change using an integrative framework that links environmental heterogeneity to genetic and phenotypic variation in sensitivity/resilience traits, an approach we term “landscape phenomics”. Our fundamental premise is that environmental variation ultimately generates phenotypic variation through plasticity and evolution, and this phenotypic variation mediates the sensitivity and vulnerability of populations to environmental change. We are currently applying this framework to understand: (1) microgeographic thermal adaptation in California Channel Islands song sparrows (Melospiza melodia graminea); and (2) regional variation in thermal tolerance and vulnerability to climate change in coastal and Rocky Mountain tailed frogs (Ascaphus truei and A. montanus) by integrating environmental (temperature), genomic (whole genome resequencing), and physiological data. In song sparrows, we find support for the hypothesis that fine-scale variation in bill surface area is an adaptation for losing dry heat, which renders different populations more or less sensitive to increasing temperatures. In tailed frogs, physiological and genomic results also indicate that populations are adapted to their local temperature regime, once again suggesting variation in sensitivity to increasing temperatures across the range of these species. Our ultimate goal will be to infer how this phenotypic variation influences spatial patterns of vulnerability in the face of climate change.