Even if you’re not too outdoors-y, you’ve probably heard of Roundup, the popular herbicide. It’s used by many farmers to protect their crops from weeds but spraying the chemical releases glyphosate over more than just the fields, it’s get everywhere and effects everything, especially in the water. This is causing loss of biodiviersity which may mean less chance for many species survival as the climate changes.

There’s good news and bad news. Scientists found that in phytoplankton, the very tiny organisms were gaining immunity to the chemical and passing it along allowing the species to handle more and more of the pollution. The bad news is that this came at the cost of diversity.

Without the biodiversity, they may not be able to adapt to other changes that come with climate and pollution. They will have a smaller pool of variation to draw from which may not be enough. This is why protecting biodiversity is so important. The group that conducted the study are working on finding out more about how these changes take place.