Local adaptation in the sea was regarded historically as a rare phenomenon that was limited to a handful of species with exceptionally low dispersal potential. However, a growing body of experimental studies indicates that adaptive differentiation occurs in numerous marine invertebrates in response to selection imposed by strong gradients (and more complex mosaics) of abiotic and biotic conditions. Moreover, a surprisingly high proportion of the marine invertebrates known or suspected of exhibiting local adaptation are species with planktonic dispersal. Adaptive divergence among populations can occur over a range of spatial scales, including those that are fine-grained (i.e., meters to kilometers), reflecting a balance between scales of gene flow and selection. Addressing the causes and consequences of adaptive genetic differentiation among invertebrate populations promises to advance community ecology, climate change research, and the effective management of marine ecosystems.

Key species interactions that are sensitive to temperature may act as leverage points through which small changes in climate could generate large changes in natural communities. Field and laboratory experiments showed that a slight decrease in water temperature dramatically reduced the effects of a keystone predator, the sea star Pisaster ochraceus, on its principal prey. Ongoing changes in patterns of cold water upwelling, associated with El Nino events and longer term geophysical changes, may thus have far-reaching impacts on the composition and diversity of these rocky intertidal communities.

The extent to which acclimation and genetic adaptation might buffer natural populations against climate change is largely unknown. Most models predicting biological responses to environmental change assume that species' climatic envelopes are homogeneous both in space and time. Although recent discussions have questioned this assumption, few empirical studies have characterized intraspecific patterns of genetic variation in traits directly related to environmental tolerance limits. We test the extent of such variation in the broadly distributed tidepool copepod Tigriopus californicus using laboratory rearing and selection experiments to quantify thermal tolerance and scope for adaptation in eight populations spanning more than 178 of latitude. Tigriopus californicus exhibit striking local adaptation to temperature, with less than 1 per cent of the total quantitative variance for thermal tolerance partitioned within populations. Moreover, heat-tolerant phenotypes observed in low-latitude populations cannot be achieved in highlatitude populations, either through acclimation or 10 generations of strong selection. Finally, in four populations there was no increase in thermal tolerance between generations 5 and 10 of selection, suggesting that standing variation had already been depleted. Thus, plasticity and adaptation appear to have limited capacity to buffer these isolated populations against further increases in temperature. Our results suggest that models assuming a uniform climatic envelope may greatly underestimate extinction risk in species with strong local adaptation.