Climate as an Evolutionary Factor

Klimatske promjene česta su tema u medijima i znanosti. Biologe osobito zanima utjecaj koji promijenjena ili nestabilna klima može imati na biocenozu. Osnovnim reakcijama na promjenu abiotičkih uvjeta smatraju se promjena areala i lokalna izumiranja. Ovaj rad želi predstaviti treću, često spominjanu, ali još ne posve istraženu mogućnost, evolucijski odgovor na klimatske promjene. Cilj je predstaviti probleme s kojima se znanstvena zajednica susreće pri istraživanju potencijalnih evolucijskih odgovora na klimatske promjene, primjere koji bi mogli nuditi argument za i protiv takvog odgovora te prikazati različite načine na koje klima potencijalno utječe na evoluciju kako indirektno tako i direktno. Naglasak je stavljen na odnos evolucije i fenotipske plastičnosti te različitih prostorno-vremenskih razina na kojima se evolucijski odgovor može proučavati – trenutno, u geološkoj prošlosti i u budućnosti.Climate change is a very frequent theme of both scientific inquiries and media reports. The effect of changing or unstable climate on the biota is of the particular interest for biologists. It is widely accepted that the main course of action for populations under climactic stress are extinction and range change. This work aims to present another often considered but not fully investigated option - evolutionary response to climate change. The goal is to present the problems that scientific community faces when investigating potential evolutionary responses on climate change, to put forward some examples which could represent arguments for and against viability of such responses and show several different possibility for mechanisms of climate as indirect and direct factor of evolution. Emphasize is put on relationship of evolution and phenotypic plasticity and different time and range scales in which evolutionary responses can be studied, currently, in geological past and in the future