Wildflower Survives Historic Drought Through Rapid Evolution
In a landmark study published in Science, researchers have documented the first known case of 'evolutionary rescue' in a wild plant species. Populations of the scarlet monkeyflower (Mimulus) in California and Oregon were tracked for over a decade, including through California's severe, multi-year megadrought, which was among the worst in over a millennium. During this extreme event, some populations suffered catastrophic declines of up to 90% from their peak sizes. Despite these severe losses, the plants did not go extinct. Instead, scientists found that the surviving flowers possessed genetic variations that made them more drought-tolerant. This allowed them to rebound to their pre-drought population levels within just two to three years. The rapid comeback was driven by natural selection favoring these hardy individuals, a process biologists term evolutionary rescue. The findings, reported by multiple institutions including UBC, provide a rare sign of hope and a crucial new insight into how some species might keep pace with climate change. While not all species may possess this capacity for rapid adaptation, the study demonstrates that genetic variation can allow certain wild plants to evolve quickly enough to survive extreme environmental pressures.
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A wildflower survived a historic megadrought. Scientists now think they know how | CNN
While the entire species was not ... flower populations likely were, suffering declines of up to 90% compared to peak population sizes. It took about two to three years for these populations to rebound, according to Anstett. A stream in California is populated by monkeyflowers, which were studied in the newly published research. ... This rapid comeback is a process biologists call evolutionary rescue, which happens ...
But multiple natural populations ... why: The flowers were rescued by their own rapid evolution. In the study, published in Science, researchers tracked scarlet monkeyflower populations in Oregon and California for more than a decade and found that the populations rapidly evolved in response to prolonged extreme drought, with some recovering. The results provide the first full documentation of "evolutionary rescue" from ...
While the entire species was not ... flower populations likely were, suffering declines of up to 90% compared to peak population sizes. It took about two to three years for these populations to rebound, according to Anstett. This rapid comeback is a process biologists call evolutionary rescue, which happens ...
A wildflower in California reveals a newly documented evolutionary process – KION Central Coast
While the entire species was not ... flower populations likely were, suffering declines of up to 90% compared to peak population sizes. It took about two to three years for these populations to rebound, according to Anstett. This rapid comeback is a process biologists call evolutionary rescue, which happens ...
During California's worst drought in over a millennium, some populations of scarlet monkeyflowers defied the odds and survived the ordeal by relying on a type of rapid genetic evolution - the first time such a phenomenon has been documented in the wild. Researchers spent eight years studying ...
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