Evolution can go quickly when it has to - at least for small organisms. Researchers exposed a natural setting in Denmark to artificial climate change and discovered that soil just half a degree warmer caused the genome of small worms to change surprisingly quickly. Can evolution keep up with the current rapid climate change? The answer to this question is very important regarding the animals, plants and microorganisms that we humans will share the planet with in future.

Researchers at Aarhus University have now unravelled part of the answer from some small worms.

For seven years, the worms were exposed to a warmer and drier climate - partly forced by the ingenious use of waterproof curtains - in an experimental area near the Danish town of Jaegerspris. The impact on their genes is clear. A total of 12 per cent of the genetic changes the researchers found in the worms could be directly attributed to the small changes in the soil temperature and moisture.

"It was surprisingly fast, especially in light of the fact that the soil only became half a degree warmer. And it's worth emphasising that the changes were only caused by the direct impact of the 'climate change', and not a bottleneck in the populations due to drought," says Associate Professor Thomas Bataillon, Bioinformatics Research Centre (BiRC), Aarhus University.

He is the main author of an article about the project that has just been published in the scientific journal Global Change Biology.