A Tiny Yet Vital Organism May Adapt to Climate Change With ‘Hidden Costs’

  • 📰 DiscoverMag
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 63 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 29%
  • Publisher: 53%

United States Headlines News

United States Latest News,United States Headlines

The copepod’s coping method amid rising temperatures and ocean acidity would have consequences for the broader food chain. Read more about it below.

Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsA recent study shows that the tiny copepod crustacean is the ocean’s equivalent of a canary in a coal mine. New research demonstrates that these “cows of the sea” may be able to evolve to adapt to climate change — but it could come at the cost of their resiliency, a recentHow the Copepod Copes

But this left them less able to survive other stressors, such as a shortage in the phytoplankton they eat. The copepods reproduce every 20 days, giving researchers the chance to observe how nearly two dozen generations adapted to climate change. At first their reproduction levels slipped a bit, but they were back on track after a few generations, says study co-author Melissa Pespeni, a biologist at the University of Vermont.

The noble copepods, along with all life on Earth, have faced a particularly challenging decade: The past eight years have been the warmest on record since record-keeping began in 1880, reports. Earth’s temperature in 2021 tied 2018 as the sixth-warmest year on record, according to an analysis from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .

Another scientist involved in the study, Hans Dam, a biological oceanographer at the University of Connecticut, says he was surprised by the speed with which the species transformed. “They adapt very quickly and get to the point where they can’t get any better, but they don’t get back to where they were before being hit with those stressors,” he says. “It means there’s no free lunch with climate change. There’s always a price to pay.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Within the framework of a course I carried out a revision, surely incomplete, called 'Ocean acidification as a stressor of climate change: analysis of impacts on marine copepods'. There are many interesting works about it. One of them as an introduction is

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 459. in US

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Tiny, Landlocked Moldova Struggles to Deal With the Fallout of Russia's War on UkraineThe ongoing war next door has put the landlocked country of Moldova, a former Soviet republic and one of Europe’s poorest nations, in a precarious position.
Source: NBCDFW - 🏆 288. / 63 Read more »

Tiny Antennas Made from DNA Light Up Protein ActivityA new method for monitoring proteins could lead to better drug development
Source: sciam - 🏆 300. / 63 Read more »

Only a tiny fraction of our DNA is uniquely humanThe genetic tweaks that make humans uniquely human may come in small parcels interspersed with DNA inherited from extinct ancestors and cousins. DNADay Depends on how you define 'human'.
Source: ScienceNews - 🏆 286. / 63 Read more »

'Tiny home' village sits empty until operating funds surfaceThe Low Income Housing Institute says a brand-new 'tiny home' village in Seattle is ready to admit clients in immediate need of housing, but funding that at one time was hoped to come from King County was instead awarded to other projects. FOX13 Where did it go? Thanks for sending them all to the opposite side of the state. What a great fix. 🙄
Source: fox13seattle - 🏆 328. / 59 Read more »

Tiny spider catapults to safety after mating to avoid sexual cannibalismPhiloponella prominens are social spiders, meaning they live in groups. But soon after they mate, the male arachnid has to rapidly leap away to avoid being eaten by its female partner
Source: cnni - 🏆 326. / 59 Read more »

These sustainable homes are 100% off the grid, have 0 utility bills and are made of recycled trashWith climate change bringing warmer climates, erratic weather and drought, your home could easily cost you lots of money.
Source: ksatnews - 🏆 442. / 53 Read more »