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Populations adapt more to temperature in the ocean than on land

A meta-analysis reveals greater variation in heat tolerance within marine than terrestrial taxa. This variation corresponds to the spatial patterns in the maximum temperature populations of marine species experience. Although populations at the equatorward range edges of species’ distributions are particularly vulnerable to warming, standing genetic variation within species might promote an adaptive response elsewhere.

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Fig. 1: Within-species variation in thermal limits.

References

  1. Sunday, J. et al. Thermal tolerance patterns across latitude and elevation. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 374, 20190036 (2019). This paper reports patterns in across-species variation of thermal limits.

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This is a summary of: Sasaki, M. et al. Greater evolutionary divergence of thermal limits within marine than terrestrial species. Nat. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01534-y (2022).

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Populations adapt more to temperature in the ocean than on land. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 1098–1099 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01535-x

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