Climate genomics—Geoscientists, ecologists, and geneticists must reinforce their collaborations to confront climate change

Oxford

2023

5999–6001

Sonderdruck

40004377

Geoscientists and ecologists alike must confront the impact of climate change on ecosystems and the services they provide. In the marine realm, major changes are projected in net primary and export production, with significant repercussions on food security, carbon storage, and climate system feedbacks. However, these projections do not include the potential for rapid linear evolution to facilitate adaptation to environmental change. Climate genomics confronts this challenge by assessing the vulnerability of ecosystem services to climate change. Because DNA is the primary biological repository of detectable environmentally selected mutations (showing evidence of change before impacts arise in morphological or metabolic patterns), genomics provides a window into selection in response to climate change, while also recording neutral processes deriving from stochastic mechanisms (Lowe et al., Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2017; 32:141–152). Due to the revolution afforded by sequencing technology developments, genomics can now meet ecologists and climate scientists in a cross-disciplinary space fertile for collaborations.
Keywords: climate change, genomics, genotype-environment, association, genetically-informed, species distribution modelling, interdisciplinary collaboration