Local adaptation to climate anomalies relates to species phylogeny

Climatic anomalies are increasing in intensity and frequency due to rapid rates of global change, leading to increased extinction risk for many species. The impacts of anomalies are likely to vary between species due to different degrees of sensitivity and extents of local adaptation. Here, we used long-term butterfly monitoring data of 143 species across six European bioclimatic regions to show how species' population dynamics have responded to local or globally-calculated climatic anomalies, and how species attributes mediate these responses. Contrary to expectations, degree of apparent local adaptation, estimated from the relative population sensitivity to local versus global anomalies, showed no associations with species mobility or reproductive rate but did contain a strong phylogenetic signal. The existence of phylogenetically-patterned local adaptation to climate has important implications for forecasting species responses to current and future climatic conditions and for developing appropriate conservation practices. Melero et al. investigate butterfly responses to climatic anomalies from long-term monitoring observations in the field. They found the degree of adaptation to local fluctuations in climate had a strong phylogenetic signal but was not associated with mobility or reproductive rate of a species.

Automated summary

Climate anomalies have a strong phylogenetic signal in species' responses, indicating the importance of evolutionary adaptation to local climate conditions. This finding has implications for predicting species responses to current and future climatic conditions and for developing appropriate conservation strategies.