A population of pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) that spawns in a stream near Juneau, Alaska, has evolved genetic changes over the last 3 decades that allow the fish to spawn earlier in the year, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B yesterday (July 11). The genetic shift may have occurred over as little as two generations and, if confirmed through other studies, may provide the first evidence of microevolution in response to the current change in global climate.
“It has been extremely difficult to determine whether any of the multitudes of observed phenological changes in nature are due to rapid microevolution within a population," Ryan Kovach, the population ecologist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks who led the study, told Nature. “This study is the first empirical example using genetic data to confirm this theory, and so addresses a key research gap ...
