ABSTRACT
Marine organisms face numerous threats. One is pollution from oil and its byproducts. We begin with a discussion of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill and how organisms evolved responses to the oil by-products from it. One vertebrate affected by the oil spill is the Gulf killifish. We stay with this killifish to discuss its evolutionary responses to chronic pollution. In adapting to the chronic pollution, one killifish population responded through a deletion of an important gene. Interestingly, it obtained that adaptive deletion from hybridization with another killifish species. We then move to a discussion of evolutionary responses of organisms to warming oceans. Oceans are not just getting warmer; they are also becoming more acidic. We discuss the evolutionary genetic responses to this ocean acidification, focusing on the purple sea urchin. For now, the urchin can keep adapting to increased acidity, but it may soon reach its limits. We then discuss the evolutionary genetic responses of corals to various stressors. We conclude with a discussion of the factors that allow some species to adapt to environmental threats.
