SYDNEY, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Genomics can help identify wild populations most vulnerable to climate change and guide conservation efforts before declines become irreversible, a study has found.
Researchers from Australia's Flinders University combined climate modeling with genome-wide data from hundreds of endangered southern pygmy perch collected at 30 sites across the Murray-Darling Basin in the interior of southeast Australia, according to a university statement released on Tuesday.
The study, published in the Journal of Heredity, found that populations in upland streams were generally more vulnerable to future climate change than those in lowland wetlands and rivers.
Elevation was a strong predictor of vulnerability, suggesting the landscape feature could help conservation managers identify high-risk populations in other freshwater ecosystems, without requiring detailed genomic data for every case, the researchers said.
The southern pygmy perch, a small freshwater fish native to southeastern Australia, has suffered major declines due to habitat loss, river regulation and prolonged droughts, according to the study. ■