Shape-Shifters Change Appearance to Cope with Climate Change

With climate change forcing plant and animal species to adapt, shape-shifters are taking a unique approach that involves changing their physical appearance without having to migrate or evolve in order to cope, new research shows.

A Rocky Mountain mustard plant is one such species using what is called phenotypic plasticity - transforming physical traits without changing genetic code - to avoid become extinct under climate change. Specifically, mustard plants demonstrated a different flowering time in response to certain environmental conditions.

But this species isn't the only one. Tiny killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) found along the Atlantic coast of North America are also adapting to their changing environment by altering the structure of its gills, a form of phenotypic plasticity.

Normally researchers focus on varied geographic distribution and a species' ability to rapidly evolve via genetics when determining climate change's impact on wildlife, but this study shows that shape-shifting may be a potential lifesaver as temperatures continue to increase. An altered appearance could let some species stay in their natural habitat without risk of extinction.

"Because climate change affects some environmental factors like precipitation and temperature but not others like day length, phenotypic plasticity could allow some species to persist in a habitat despite changing conditions and provide more time for them to evolve and migrate," co-author Zachariah Gezon at Dartmouth College said in a press release.

However, climate change could also cause certain species to physically change in ways that actually reduce their fitness and hinder their ability to migrate and adapt, thus putting their survival at risk.

For the native mustard plant, climate change is causing warmer winters on the Rocky Mountains where it lives, resulting in reduced snowpack and earlier snow melt. Researchers investigating how this species is coping simulated climate change conditions at an intermediate elevation on the mountain. They found that the plant flowered seven days early - the equivalent of flowering time shifts over 20 to 30 years of climate change. Not to mention that the plants took on the appearance of those found at low elevations where the climate is hot and dry. Although not all plants exhibited the same traits, meaning phenotypic plasticity doesn't make the entire species change in the same way.

So while it seems that the majority of wildlife species, plants and animals alike, may be doomed because of our warming world, this study shows that life may be able to find a way to survive.

The findings were published in the journal Global Change Biology.

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