Climate Change Impacts on Animal Evolution and Ecology
Climate change could have an impact on animal evolution and ecology, scientists believe.
A 20-year study of Scottish sheep found weather patterns were driving changes in body shape and population size.
Harsh winters led to larger sheep, which brought about changes in population size, yet in milder winters this effect was not seen.
The team says the study, published in the journal Science, is the first to connect these different factors.
“Until now, it has proven really quite difficult to show how ecology and evolutionary change are linked, but we have developed a way to tie them together,” said Tim Coulson, an author of the paper and a scientist at Imperial College London.
Dr Coulson and colleagues did this by examining a population of Soay sheep on the island of Hirta in the Outer Hebrides.
“The reason we looked at these sheep is they have been studied in enormous detail. Where they live is like a natural laboratory - it is a really simple system - there is just sheep and grass on the island,” Dr Coulson explained.