Researchers\u00a0at the\u00a0Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE)\u00a0with colleagues from the Natural History Museum and University College London (UCL) have found evidence of tropical frogs adapting to warming temperatures.<\/p>\n
An international group of researchers including\u00a0Professor Jim Groombridge<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE)<\/a>\u00a0and colleagues from the Natural History Museum and University College London (UCL) have found evidence of tropical frogs adapting to warming temperatures.<\/p>\n Evidence of the Seychelles frog (Sooglossus sechellensis)<\/em>\u2019s adaptation includes inhabiting lower elevations, and the same activity pattern as frogs on cooler islands despite the warmer temperatures. Yet the researchers warn that human-induced climate change still poses a huge threat to species\u2019 survival.<\/p>\n The Seychelles frog is endemic to the islands of Mah\u00e9, Silhouette and Praslin in the Seychelles. Researchers focused on a population of\u00a0Sooglossus sechellensis<\/em>\u00a0which \u2013 due to historic sea level rise \u2013 have been forced to inhabit the significantly warmer island of Praslin. Along with a warmer temperature, Praslin also lacks the high-elevation mist forest habitat that\u00a0Sooglossus sechellensis<\/em>\u00a0inhabits on Mah\u00e9 and Silhouette. With the population on Praslin having little to no opportunity to avoid the hotter climates, the researchers hypothesised that the population of frogs on Praslin must have adapted to survive in warmer environments than their closest living relatives and ancestors.<\/p>\n Tropical amphibians, particularly those that inhabit islands, are vulnerable to a warming climate due to a range of factors \u2013 they are ectothermic (their body temperature is regulated by the external environment) prone to desiccation and are often restricted to very specific areas.<\/p>\n Professor Groombridge said: \u2018While frogs on Praslin have shown adaptions to a warmer climate, it is likely that this has occurred very gradually. We found that genetic evidence and differences in call characters even suggest that these frogs may have evolved into a new species.<\/p>\n \u2018Unfortunately, local extinction is still a likely outcome for tropical frogs in this rapidly warming world.\u2019<\/p>\n Dr Jim Labisko, lead author of the study and Lecturer in Biodiversity at UCL, said: \u2018With a rapidly warming climate, it\u2019s really important to understand how different species respond to climate change. Our study provides evidence that vulnerable species (even little brown island frogs!) can adapt to warmer climates, but they may only be able to do so when warming is gradual and natural selection can occur over millions of years. That makes the current climate crisis a major concern as most species will not have millions of years to adapt to rapidly rising temperatures.\u2019<\/p>\n Dr Jeff Streicher, Senior Curator in Charge, Amphibians and Reptiles at the\u00a0Natural History Museum<\/a>, said: \u2018This population of frogs appear to have been able to adapt to a warming climate, even if this level of adaptation may have taken a long time. It\u2019s exciting to think that this adaptive potential could also be present in other populations of climate-vulnerable organisms.\u2019<\/p>\n Their research paper \u2018Survival of climate warming through niche shifts: Evidence from frogs on tropical islands\u2019\u00a0<\/em>is published by\u00a0Global Change Biology<\/em>. doi:\u00a010.1111\/gcb.15997<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Researchers\u00a0at the\u00a0Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE)\u00a0with colleagues from the Natural History Museum and University College London (UCL) have found evidence of tropical frogs … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66395,"featured_media":7315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7314,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions\/7314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}