Symbiont genotype influences holobiont response to increased temperature.

As coral reefs face warming oceans and increased coral bleaching, a whitening of the coral due to loss of microalgal endosymbionts, the possibility of evolutionary rescue offers some hope for reef persistence. In tightly linked mutualisms, evolutionary rescue may occur through evolution of the host and/or endosymbionts. Many obligate mutualisms are composed of relatively small, fast-growing symbionts with greater potential to evolve on ecologically relevant time scales than their relatively large, slower growing hosts.

Dynamic species interactions associated with the range-shifting marine gastropod Mexacanthina lugubris.

Globally, species are undergoing range shifts in response to climate change. However, the potential impacts of climate-driven range shifts are not well understood. In southern California, the predatory whelk Mexacanthina lugubris has undergone a northward range shift of more than 100 km in the past four decades.