Adaptation to Global Warming in Resurrected Phytoplankton

There is an urgent need for a better understanding of the adaptive potential in marine phytoplank-ton if we are to understand and predict future ecosystem responses to global warming accurately. A key challenge is the limited awareness of evolution in a ‘real-life’ global warming scenario. The aim of AWARE is to reveal novel, yet undescribed biodiversity and assess the scope for realistic adaptation to global warming across European coastal waters. This is achieved by 1) resurrecting phytoplankton resting stages from the 1850s to the current times and by producing thermal per-formance curves for key species across the European coastline. Further, we will 2) sequence the genomes of selected resurrected species to investigate the consequences of temperature adaption in phytoplankton and 3) investigate potential ecological consequences of thermal adaption by spe-cifically focusing on phytoplankton fatty acid profiles and the link to higher trophic levels. In this way, we can study evolution that has already occurred in relation to documented global warming. Such knowledge is of pivotal value when trying to predict the responses of marine phytoplankton to future warming. My groups' recent research using a resurrected diatom species from the Baltic Sea shows that adaptation to progressing global warming has been ongoing since at least the 1960s. This is the first discovery of its kind globally and warrants further research into the topic to clarify the exact mechanisms and the ecological consequences of thermal adaptation in phytoplankton. As a side product, this research will also establish the first paleo-algal strain collection in the world. This collection will be made available to the whole research community to enable the study of adaptation in phytoplankton to environmental changes other than merely temperature.