Here’s How Some Species Will Survive Climate Change

A species is defined as a group of organisms that interbreed and produce offspring. Plants and animals are called different species when they can't. Sometimes it is difficult to imagine how that might work between Great Danes and chihuahuas, which are both Canis familiaris, but for the most part it is a good way to understand the biological diversity around us. That is incorrect.

Until recently, scientists were only able to look at a small percentage of an organisms genes, which gave us a good proxy for the heritage of the organisms as a whole. We were able to figure out how two creatures were related. With the ability to sequence entire genomes, we are able to look at most of the millions of pieces of DNA in living things. We are learning thatspecies aren't so clear-cut.

New genomic data give us a lot of evidence that species, even ones that aren't very closely related, have hybrid offspring.

These hybrid species may be better equipped to handle climate change than the parent species from which they came as a result of a parade of droughts, floods and heat waves.

Each species has to evolve its own beneficial genes in a laborious process that can be hit or miss. The process takes a long time. When different species hybridize, beneficial genes that have evolved in one species can migrate to the other species. There are benefits to this shuffle of DNA, like disease resistance or adaptation to new environments.

As if they were trading cards, hybridization allows species to swap their best genes quickly. Liaisons between two species serve as a mechanism for rapid genetic upgrades and may set up beneficial events for many kinds of animals and plants. While many individual interspecific hybrid might not always be reproductively successful, the fact that they are sometimes able to find a partner and reproduce, eventually blends their novel combination of genes with one of the parent lineages, shows that they are sometimes able to find a partner and reproduce.

This has to do with climate change.

The impact of hybridization on weathering climate change is very important. When humans and Neandertals were on the planet at the same time, interbreeding may have resulted in the loss of important survival genes that Neandertals had built up over thousands of years. As we migrated out of sunny Africa, we encountered new pathogens and had to adjust to dark and cold climates. The genomes of most of us are equipped with a package of non–Homo sapiens genes because they give us clear benefits.

The species that are able to reap the benefits of hybridization and skip ahead in the race to adapt have a better chance of long-term survival.

The recent news of a climate bill in Washington is a small step in the right direction, but it hasn't come in time for many of the species threatened by climate change. The US Fish and Wildlife Service declared another 23 species extinct last fall. As the weather gets more unpredictable, these lists will grow even more. Climate change went from an abstract prediction to a hard hitting, intensifying, global catastrophe.

There is some hope for nature.

If we leave enough intact for species to persist and come into contact with each other, we may be able to weather the storm. Habitat destruction may have already sealed the fate of many species, and hybridization isn't magic, the beneficial genes have to exist in the first place It is a path to survival. Due to the pace of climate change and development, most species won't be able to benefit from hybridization. It isn't a lost cause, anything we can do to slow climate change will give biodiversity a chance to adapt. Our actions will cause extinctions across the tree of life, but hopefully an old habit of exchanging genes will provide an unexpected way for some species to dodge extinction.

The views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those ofScientific American.