Environmental change can drive hard-wired evolutionary
changes in animal species in a matter of generations. A study by Umeå
University ecologist Tom Cameron and a research team at University of Leeds
overturns the common assumption that evolution only occurs gradually over
hundreds or thousands of years. The results are published in the journal
Ecology Letters.
Instead, researchers found significant genetically
transmitted changes in laboratory populations of soil mites in just 15
generations leading to a doubling of the age at which the mites reached
adulthood and large changes in population size. The results have important
implications in areas such as disease and pest control, conservation and
fisheries management because they demonstrate that evolution can be a
game-changer even in the short-term.