據(jù)5月9日science雜志報道,，有些鳥兒為了適應(yīng)不斷變暖的氣候,， 多年來一直在改變其繁殖的時間,。
英美科學家聯(lián)合對山雀進行了歷時47年之久的研究,。通過將個體變異、群體水平反應(yīng),、自然選擇,、氣候以及物種的食物供給時間選擇等資訊聯(lián)系在一起，研究人員解釋了這些山雀是如何有效地進行適應(yīng)性變化以預先做好對它們環(huán)境變化的準備,，旨在維持其種群數(shù)量并使繁殖達到最大化,。（生物谷www.bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Science，Vol. 320. no. 5877, pp. 800 - 803,，Anne Charmantier, Ben C. Sheldon
Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity in Response to Climate Change in a Wild Bird Population
Anne Charmantier,1,2 Robin H. McCleery,1 Lionel R. Cole,1 Chris Perrins,1 Loeske E. B. Kruuk,3 Ben C. Sheldon1*
Rapid climate change has been implicated as a cause of evolution in poorly adapted populations. However, phenotypic plasticity provides the potential for organisms to respond rapidly and effectively to environmental change. Using a 47-year population study of the great tit (Parus major) in the United Kingdom, we show that individual adjustment of behavior in response to the environment has enabled the population to track a rapidly changing environment very closely. Individuals were markedly invariant in their response to environmental variation, suggesting that the current response may be fixed in this population. Phenotypic plasticity can thus play a central role in tracking environmental change; understanding the limits of plasticity is an important goal for future research.
1 Edward Grey Institute, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
2 Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionelle et Evolutive, Unité Mixte de Recherche CNRS 5175, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
3 Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.
