In the words of Donelson et al. (2012), “ocean temperatures are expected to become adverse for many marine species within the next 50-100 years because of global warming,” and they say that “tropical species are expected to have less capacity for thermal acclimation than temperate species because they have evolved in a more stable thermal environment.” But is this really true?
Speculating that it may not be, Donelson et al. conceived and conducted an experiment to find out for themselves. More specifically, the four researchers “reared siblings from eight wild parental lineages of the tropical damselfish Acanthochromis polyacanthus for two generations in present-day (+0.0°C) and predicted future increased water temperatures (+1.5 and +3.0°C) to test their capacity for metabolic acclimation to ocean warming.”
