In the race against climate change and ocean acidification,
some sea urchins may still have a few tricks up their spiny sleeves, suggesting
that adaptation will likely play a large role for the sea creatures as the
carbon content of the ocean increases.
"What we want to know is, given that this is a process
that happens over time, can marine animals adapt? Could evolution come to the
rescue?" said postdoctoral researcher Morgan Kelly, from UC Santa
Barbara's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology. She is a
co-author of the paper "Natural variation, and the capacity to adapt to
ocean acidification in the keystone sea urchin Strongylocentrotus
purpuratus." The paper was published in the latest edition of the journal
Global Change Biology.