scholarly journals Eco-evolutionary dynamics

2009 ◽  
Vol 364 (1523) ◽  
pp. 1483-1489 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Pelletier ◽  
D. Garant ◽  
A.P. Hendry
Keyword(s):  
Time Scale ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
Microevolutionary Change ◽  
Theoretical Developments ◽  
Rapid Evolutionary Change

Evolutionary ecologists and population biologists have recently considered that ecological and evolutionary changes are intimately linked and can occur on the same time-scale. Recent theoretical developments have shown how the feedback between ecological and evolutionary dynamics can be linked, and there are now empirical demonstrations showing that ecological change can lead to rapid evolutionary change. We also have evidence that microevolutionary change can leave an ecological signature. We are at a stage where the integration of ecology and evolution is a necessary step towards major advances in our understanding of the processes that shape and maintain biodiversity. This special feature about ‘eco-evolutionary dynamics’ brings together biologists from empirical and theoretical backgrounds to bridge the gap between ecology and evolution and provide a series of contributions aimed at quantifying the interactions between these fundamental processes.

scholarly journals Rapid evolution and strain turnover in the infant gut microbiome

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daisy W. Chen ◽  
Nandita R. Garud
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiome ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Fold Increase ◽  
Metagenomic Data ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
De Novo Mutations ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
Infant Gut Microbiome

While the ecological dynamics of the infant gut microbiome have been intensely studied, relatively little is known about the evolutionary dynamics in the infant gut microbiome. Here we analyze longitudinal fecal metagenomic data from >700 infants and their mothers over the first year of life and find that the evolutionary dynamics in infant gut microbiomes are distinct from that of adults. We find evidence for almost 100-fold increase in the rate of evolution and strain turnover in the infant gut compared to healthy adults, with the mother-infant transition at delivery being a particularly dynamic period in which gene loss dominates. Within a few months after birth, these dynamics stabilize, and gene gains become increasingly frequent as the microbiome matures. We furthermore find that evolutionary changes in infants show signatures of being seeded by a mixture of de novo mutations and transmissions of pre-evolved lineages from the broader family. Several of these evolutionary changes occur in parallel in multiple infants, highlighting candidate genes that may play important roles in the development of the infant gut microbiome. Our results point to a picture of a volatile infant gut microbiome characterized by rapid evolutionary and ecological change in the early days of life.

Daphnia as a Model for Eco-evolutionary Dynamics

2018 ◽  
pp. 403-424
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Walsh ◽  
Michelle Packer ◽  
Shannon Beston ◽  
Collin Funkhouser ◽  
Michael Gillis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Life History Evolution ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Evolutionary Forces ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
History Evolution ◽  
Ecological Importance ◽  
The Many

Much research has shown that variation in ecological processes can drive rapid evolutionary changes over periods of years to decades. Such contemporary adaptation sets the stage for evolution to have reciprocal impacts on the properties of populations, communities, and ecosystems, with ongoing interactions between ecological and evolutionary forces. The importance and generality of these eco-evolutionary dynamics are largely unknown. In this chapter, we promote the use of water fleas (Daphnia sp.) as a model organism in the exploration of eco-evolutionary interactions in nature. The many characteristics of Daphnia that make them suitable for laboratory study in conjunction with their well-known ecological importance in lakes, position Daphnia to contribute new and important insights into eco-evolutionary dynamics. We first review the influence of key environmental stressors in Daphnia evolution. We then highlight recent work documenting the pathway from life history evolution to ecology using Daphnia as a model. This review demonstrates that much is known about the influence of ecology on Daphnia life history evolution, while research exploring the genomic basis of adaptation as well as the influence of Daphnia life history traits on ecological processes is beginning to accumulate.

Heritability, polymorphism, and population dynamics: individual-based eco-evolutionary simulations

2021 ◽  
pp. 329-340
Author(s):  
Anna Kuparinen
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Atlantic Cod ◽  
Population Projections ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Evolutionary Simulations ◽  
Main Message

Contemporary evolution that occurs across ecologically relevant time scales, such as a few generations or decades, can not only change phenotypes but also feed back to demographic parameters and the dynamics of populations. This chapter presents a method to make phenotypic traits evolve in mechanistic individual-based simulations. The method is broadly applicable, as demonstrated through its applications to boreal forest adaptation to global warming, eco-evolutionary dynamics driven by fishing-induced selection in Atlantic cod, and the evolution of age at maturity in Atlantic salmon. The main message of this chapter is that there may be little reason to exclude phenotypic evolution in analyses of population dynamics, as these can be modified by evolutionary changes in life histories. Future challenges will be to integrate rapidly accumulating genomic knowledge and an ecosystem perspective to improve population projections and to better understand the drivers of population dynamics.

Natural hybridization as a catalyst of rapid evolutionary change

2012 ◽  
pp. 256-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael L. Arnold ◽  
Jennafer A.P. Hamlin ◽  
Amanda N. Brothers ◽  
Evangeline S. Ballerini
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
Natural Hybridization ◽  
Rapid Evolutionary Change

scholarly journals Observations of evolutionary changes in the pulsation period of cepheids

1984 ◽  
Vol 105 ◽  
pp. 445-448
Author(s):  
L. Szabados
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Stellar Evolution ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Pulsation Period ◽  
First Approximation ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
Classical Cepheids ◽  
Cepheid Variables

In spite of the fact that Cepheid variables pulsate quite regularly their pulsation period remains constant only in the first approximation. The pulsation period is subject to variations because of stellar evolution. The calculations made by Hofmeister (1965) predicted that the evolutionary period changes of classical Cepheids should be observed on a time scale of several decades or longer. No detailed analysis of the observed period changes has been made since Hofmeister's fundamental theoretical work.

scholarly journals Are there ergodic limits to evolution? Ergodic exploration of genome space and convergence

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 20150041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom C. B. McLeish
Keyword(s):  
Time Scale ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Compound Eye ◽  
Biological Structure ◽  
Evolutionary Time ◽  
Structural Space ◽  
Interesting Class ◽  
Equivalent Systems ◽  
Genome Space ◽  
Time Required

We examine the analogy between evolutionary dynamics and statistical mechanics to include the fundamental question of ergodicity —the representative exploration of the space of possible states (in the case of evolution this is genome space). Several properties of evolutionary dynamics are identified that allow a generalization of the ergodic dynamics, familiar in dynamical systems theory, to evolution. Two classes of evolved biological structure then arise, differentiated by the qualitative duration of their evolutionary time scales. The first class has an ergodicity time scale (the time required for representative genome exploration) longer than available evolutionary time, and has incompletely explored the genotypic and phenotypic space of its possibilities. This case generates no expectation of convergence to an optimal phenotype or possibility of its prediction. The second, more interesting, class exhibits an evolutionary form of ergodicity—essentially all of the structural space within the constraints of slower evolutionary variables have been sampled; the ergodicity time scale for the system evolution is less than the evolutionary time. In this case, some convergence towards similar optima may be expected for equivalent systems in different species where both possess ergodic evolutionary dynamics. When the fitness maximum is set by physical, rather than co-evolved, constraints, it is additionally possible to make predictions of some properties of the evolved structures and systems. We propose four structures that emerge from evolution within genotypes whose fitness is induced from their phenotypes. Together, these result in an exponential speeding up of evolution, when compared with complete exploration of genomic space. We illustrate a possible case of application and a prediction of convergence together with attaining a physical fitness optimum in the case of invertebrate compound eye resolution.

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