Learning Task 4
Adaptation and Evolution in Changing Environments
Luis Miguel Rosalino, Luciano M. Verdade and Maria Carolina Lyra-Jorge Abstract
In a planet in continuous change, where humans and their activities have enhanced this modification’s rate, wildlife had to develop mechanisms to cope with this change to avoid extinction. The challenges imposed by agricultural landscapes, often associated with production cycles and intensification, has led to the extinction of many populations or species unable to track resources or change their behavioral or biological processes to allow them to use the available resources. However, not always the story has negative outcome. In the present chapter, we present several examples of acclimation and adaption processes of species trying to survive in changing environment, which include morphological, physiological, and behavioral adaptations (i.e., with genetic implications) and behavioral acclimations. However, there is threshold of changes that a species may manage to overcome. This limit is species specific and directly related to the species natural history., plasticity and genetic structure and diversity.​