Evolutionary response to drought stress: Conservation implications Original Research Article

Organisms in free-living populations are normally subjected to stressful environments, especially hydrological extremes followed by nutritional inadequacy. Although adaptation to increased desiccation stress can occur, reduced fitness is a cost restricting the potential for spread into extreme habitats. Selection for stress resistance should be lower in captive populations reducing survival on release into free-living conditions. Therefore in developing protocols to promote conservation I recommend monitoring stress response traits of direct ecological importance emphasizing outlier populations close to extinction. This approach gains support from evidence that genetic variability in some stressed outlier populations is not lacking but may be enhanced.