A Phenological Mismatch Between a Wild Bird and Its Food Source
Reed, T.E., Grotan, V., Jenouvrier, S., Saether, B.-E. and Visser, M.E. 2013. Population growth in a wild bird is buffered against phonological mismatch. Science 340: 488-491.
Based on their research, the five scientists report that "there were no statistically significant linear nor quadratic effects of population mismatch on population growth," implying that "mistiming did not depress mean fitness" and that "fitness losses associated with mismatch are counteracted by fitness gains due to relaxed competition."
In the concluding sentence of their paper's abstract, Reed et al. state that their findings imply that "natural populations may be able to tolerate considerable maladaptation driven by shifting climatic conditions without undergoing immediate declines." And as they state in the concluding sentence of the body of their paper, "our results imply that considerable directional selection might be demographically tolerable on decadal time scales without immediate population declines, effectively buying time for microevolution to restore adaptation."
Visser, M.E., Holleman, L.J.M. and Gienapp, P. 2006. Shifts in caterpillar biomass phenology due to climate change and its impact on the breeding biology of an insectivorous bird. Oecologia 147: 164-172.
Visser, M.E., van Noordwijk, A.J., Tinbergen, J.M. and Lessells, C.M. Warmer springs lead to mistimed reproduction in great tits (Parus major). 1998. Proceedings of the Royal Society London Series B - Biological Sciences 265: 1867-1870.