Evolutionary straitjacket means flies can’t take the heat
Many species of fruit fly lack the ability to adapt effectively to predicted increases in global temperatures and may face extinction in the near future, according to new research.
In a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from Monash University, The University of Melbourne and Danish collaborators showed that many species of fruit fly appear to be constrained within an evolutionary straitjacket and can’t readily adapt to climate change-related temperature increases.
Dr Vanessa Kellermann from Monash University’s School of Biological Sciences said current projections predict a 3ºC increase in mean annual temperature in the next century and even greater increases in extremes.
“Given our findings, these expected increases pose a major threat to biodiversity in the near future. Particularly as Drosophila or fruit fly findings are often more broadly applicable,” Dr Kellermann said.
By examining nearly 100 species of fruit fly from around the world, the researchers showed that species had evolved to the temperature extremes and humidity of their environments. However, they had very little flexibility in being able to change their levels of heat resistance and seem unable to adapt to increased temperatures in the future.
High heat resistance is a feature of only some branches of the phylogeny – the tree that shows how species are related through evolution – of Drosophila. Other branches had very limited ability to change their levels of heat resistance; even when flies native to cooler areas grew up in a warm environment, their heat tolerance was not significantly altered.
“The problem is that only a handful of species have adapted to hot environments while most species have not and it seems very difficult to switch once you are stuck on a phylogenetic branch,” Dr Kellermann said.
The researchers looked at species’ prospects for dealing with projected temperature increases in the near future.
“If a species can only withstand temperatures of 36ºC and the maximum temperature of the environment is already 36ºC, an increase of even 1ºC would already put this species over the edge towards extinction,” Dr Kellermann said.
Using this method, the researchers identified at-risk species and found that most tropical and mid-latitude species fell into this category.
“Without rapid adaptation, which now seems very unlikely, a lot of species may fall over under even a mild increase in temperature,” Dr Kellermann said.
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I’m sure the people who have battled the Mediterranean Fruit Fly will be happy to hear this. It seems though this is just old recycled news used to paint GW in a scary light, here’s a paper from 1986:
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Developmental temperature and life span in Drosophila melanogaster. I. Constant developmental temperature: evidence for physiological adaptation in a wide temperature range.
Abstract
The concept of an inverse relationship between life span of adult Drosophila and their developmental temperature is probably the result of an unwarranted generalization. Rather, in a wild-type laboratory strain the present study revealed a plateau phase in this relationship between 16 and 29 degrees C in which life span of both male and female flies was roughly independent of developmental temperature. Below and above this range, life span dropped drastically, development being impossible below 12 and above 32.5 degrees C. Simultaneous study of growth characteristics showed that the plateau phase corresponded to a ‘physiological’ range of developmental temperature, development being apparently disturbed outside that range. Within that physiological range, the growth rate of the flies varied varied 2-fold, while life span remained constant corroborating our previous conclusion that growth rate per se does not determine life span.
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I find it humorous that Nature so poorly equipped flies over the billions of years of existence that they’ll just “fall over” once the temperature gets to 37C. So much for evolution and survival of the fittest. Contrast this to claims that GW will cause mosquitoes and others pests to flourish.
I wonder where David Suzuki stands on this news?
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From a quick search, fruit flies seem to survive from New Zealand through the Tropics to at least as far North as Sweden.
Am I wrong in thinking that they aren’t that ****ing delicate?
RHS.. you have dashed all hope… ruined an otherwise nominal day… grumble.
If these people aren’t smart enough to see the handwriting on the wall re AGW, chances are their paper is worthless.
I know that it is some years ago now, so things may have changed for Drosophila, but when we used to breed them in the lab we raised the temperature by a couple of degrees so that the buggers would breed faster. But of course that was in the lab, which has so often little to do with real life.
Reverse evolution perhaps?
This is more an indictment of wildlife biology which, along with the social sciences seem irreparably corrupted and broken. They even refute what is supposed to be the central stem upon which the science hangs – evolution. That there are hundreds of varieties of fruit flies is essential proof of their adaptability.
For antidrosophilactic action, it might also be worth trying one of those electric tennis racquet things – they’re great fun with houseflies. Or are fruitflies too small?
BTW, Anthony, congratulations on spelling ‘straitjacket’ correctly (i.e. not ‘straight jacket’) – or is that down to the speech recognition software? (Is that going OK? – It looks pretty competent. Are you on to Victor Borge’s ‘Phonetic Punctuation’ yet? 🙂
So … did drosophila evolve *after* the medieval warm period or did they somehow magically survive that?
A tip of the hat to –> Brad S says:
September 18, 2012 at 12:16 pm
OMG. I must be crazy because I don’t get it. So fruit flies only live in totally stable climates? It never gets about 36? Somewhere in Brazil it’s 36 degrees, a heat wave hits and it goes to 39 for a week, do all the fruit flies die? Is it a minute at 37, a month or a year. If it hits 40 do they die in a milisecond.
Who comes up with this crap?
Its simple the Fruit fly has survived warm and cold periods for millions of years, and lives in every temperature different location on earth excerpt Antarctica and the Arctic, I experienced them in Iceland. Dr Kellermann please don’t fret most of them will be here when humans are long gone!
Next study please?
As I recall, we raised the buggers in sealed jars with tiny airholes under incandescent lights back in biology. Where do they expect the earth to be hotter than that?
We did notice that the FF multiplied faster as temperatures went higher and slower when chilled (refrigerator).
Suuurree this study was very very, er, comprehensive and, what’s that word the warmists really coo about? Robust! That’s it, robust… ha ha ha, riiigghhtt.
Maybe the test flies got dehydrated in the experiment?
With warming at 0,1C per decade I think they underestimate the power of evolution. And the ability to fly in the first place. Do they write this because they have to, or do they really believe this nonsense?
Supererogatory, given the above comments, I suspect.
Fruit flies breed like F>*<.
[Fury – what did your detractors thnk you thought?]
Any variation will – per the referenced Darwin,C., – improve or not its possessors adaptability [notably to temperature].
Again, as noted, fruit flies are pretty wide ranging – and 0.35 C per decade – even if it really truly was occurring – is likely to be well within the adapability of – shall we say – the large majoriy of our fruit flies.
Auto
You know what’s so ridiculous about these types of studies? They assume a constant temp. Were these fruit flies tested in a standard fruit fly chamber which can hold temp to within a degree of target? Were there flies kept in the standard 28mm diameter vials with food on the bottom? Those conditions seem to be a horrible mimic of the real world where temps fluctuate all day and there are leaves and shaded areas from which to hide from the heat. I would have a hard time believing this experiment, and several others that look at these raised temperature levels, have been so masterfully thought out that they replicate the daily/seasonal volatility of the environs where these critters live.
Paolo says:
September 18, 2012 at 11:04 am
The Warm List
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I think it’s shut down now but there used to be a site called Panicwatch.com. It had a list that ranked the current panic by the number of stories there were about it. What I enjoyed the most was actual links to personal solutions to the panics. For example, somebody out there was actually selling bat guano to put around your house to attract bats and so keep West Nile virus carrying mosquitoes at bay. I miss that site. I wonder what somebody would have been trying to sell to fruit flies to save them from CAGW? Insulated fruit coolers?
If bacteria can adapt and inhabit the near boiling thermal springs at Yellowstone…
“Matt says:
September 18, 2012 at 10:35 am
We are discussing the extinction of fruit flies. Can someone explain why this would be a bad thing?”
Sarc://
It would be a bad thing because there’s people’s livelyhoods at stake. Think of all those poor out of work Govt Agricultural inspectors. LOL. 🙂
Here’s in New Zealand finding just one foreign fruitfly causes a national meltdown. All the Govt inspectors come out in force and start quaranting the place. NZ authorities are paranoid about fruitflies and distruction to horticulture and our exports. Having said that NO more Fruitflies because of GW. Would be the end of that problem 🙂
Does this mean that david suzuki will go extinct too?
You have to wonder how the planet has survived for the millions of years before these taxpayer funded worrywarts were around. Save the Mastodon! Preserve the pterodactyl! I hear them cry.
This is just another cut-and-paste from the Conservation Biology crowd. What with the hundreds of thousands of categories of living things on the planet, they can do speculative, pointless studies like this until they retire on comfy university pensions.
Since drosophlia are raised in vast numbers for biology studies, and some of them inevitably escape, one wonders who ought to be apologising for upsetting the fictitious ‘ecological balance’.
And yeah, anyone who has been involved in fruitgrowing would not mourn the demise of the buggers for a second. However, as others have pointed out, fat chance. If I was betting on species demise due to climate change, they would be 100-1.
The genus Drosophila as currently defined [ … ] contains 1,450 described species, while the estimated total number of species is estimated at thousands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila
And a new generation is born every ten days or so. The authors seem to have little faith in or are not familiar with evolution and natural selection.
For those not familiar with the 1989 California Medfly Crisis …
… the infestation spread as the medfly reproductive cycle out-paced the spraying. After more than a month, millions of dollars of crops had been destroyed and billions of dollars more were threatened.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratitis_capitata
Tough little buggars.
More bunk. As others have observed, these people don’t get out much. Another example of “studies” by persons who are resident in relatively temperate places.
I don’t recall many issues with fruit pests in recent years, but I thought I’d check the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry website in case I’d missed something.
Problem is, there is so much information that it cannot all be illustrated spatially.
http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/26_17828.htm
“Queensland fruit fly is a native pest occurring throughout eastern Australia.” [That means 11°S to 38°S, or 43°S if it includes Tasmania.]
“Host range
Queensland fruit fly infests both indigenous and introduced fruits. Commercial varieties affected include abiu, apple, avocado, babaco, capsicum, carambola, casimiroa, cherry, citrus, custard apple, granadilla, grape, guava, kiwifruit, mango, nectarine, papaya, passionfruit, peach, pear, persimmon, plum, pomegranate, prune, quince, loquat, santol, sapodilla, tamarillo, tomato and wax jambu.
Damage
Major and frequent pest. Activity is greatest in warm humid conditions and is particularly important where tree-ripened fruit are concerned.”
Yep. At 19°S I have noticed flies tend to start dying when the temperature drops to +6°C.
No evidence of stress at the other end of the spectrum 🙁
don,t worry I have started up a breeding program to save the little blighters for future generations
@Michael Bergeron (@zerg539) who wrote: “Dead Fruit flys are the best kind of fruit fly. They managed to get in my apartment and i could never get rid of them even with targeted extermination campaigns.”
Michael, first the obvious: be sure that there is no place for them to breed. Then get a small dish, saucer, etc. put a little vinegar in the bottom (option: an added drop of dishwashing detergent to make the vinegar “wetter”), cover the dish with a Saran-wrap type film, punch a small hole in the film, and put the dish near when flies gather. Flies will be attracted to the vinegar, crawl through the hole,and eventually end up floating in the vinegar. We had a minor infestation of ordinary fruti flies, put out a dish as above, and have collected the better part of a hundred flies in a few days. Now we may see one fly a day, and its days are numbered! (You can also catch them individually with a vacuum cleaner.)
IanM
You got the wrong species of fly dumb-bums.
Its not the Fruitfly that eats fruit but a different species…
“Without rapid adaptation, which now seems very unlikely, a lot of species may fall over under even a mild increase in temperature,” Dr Kellermann said.
I thought the tropics had the most diversity on the planet, and their temperatures will be affected the least according to the IPCC.
Tell me which side is denying evolution again? Help me out here…