scholarly journals Evolutionary rescue: an emerging focus at the intersection between ecology and evolution

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1610) ◽  
pp. 20120404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gonzalez ◽  
Ophélie Ronce ◽  
Regis Ferriere ◽  
Michael E. Hochberg
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Relative Fitness ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Practical Concern ◽  
Evolutionary Rescue ◽  
Declining Populations ◽  
Short Time

There is concern that the rate of environmental change is now exceeding the capacity of many populations to adapt. Mitigation of biodiversity loss requires science that integrates both ecological and evolutionary responses of populations and communities to rapid environmental change, and can identify the conditions that allow the recovery of declining populations. This special issue focuses on evolutionary rescue (ER), the idea that evolution might occur sufficiently fast to arrest population decline and allow population recovery before extinction ensues. ER emphasizes a shift to a perspective on evolutionary dynamics that focuses on short time-scales, genetic variants of large effects and absolute rather than relative fitness. The contributions in this issue reflect the state of field; the articles address the latest conceptual developments, and report novel theoretical and experimental results. The examples in this issue demonstrate that this burgeoning area of research can inform problems of direct practical concern, such as the conservation of biodiversity, adaptation to climate change and the emergence of infectious disease. The continued development of research on ER will be necessary if we are to understand the extent to which anthropogenic global change will reduce the Earth's biodiversity.

scholarly journals Dynamics of genomic change during evolutionary rescue in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Rêgo ◽  
Frank J. Messina ◽  
Zachariah Gompert
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Callosobruchus Maculatus ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Frequency Change ◽  
Genomic Change ◽  
Seed Beetle ◽  
Multiple Loci ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
Evolutionary Rescue

AbstractRapid adaptation can prevent extinction when populations are exposed to extremely marginal or stressful environments. Factors that affect the likelihood of evolutionary rescue from extinction have been identified, but much less is known about the evolutionary dynamics (e.g., rates and patterns of allele frequency change) and genomic basis of successful rescue, particularly in multicellular organisms. We conducted an evolve-and-resequence experiment to investigate the dynamics of evolutionary rescue at the genetic level in the cowpea seed beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus, when it is experimentally shifted to a stressful host plant, lentil. Low survival (∼1%) at the onset of the experiment caused population decline. But adaptive evolution quickly rescued the population, with survival rates climbing to 69% by the F5 generation and 90% by the F10 generation. Population genomic data showed that rescue likely was caused by rapid evolutionary change at multiple loci, with many alleles fixing or nearly fixing within five generations of selection on lentil. Selection on these loci was only moderately consistent in time, but parallel evolutionary changes were evident in sublines formed after the lentil line had passed through a bottleneck. By comparing estimates of selection and genomic change on lentil across five independent C. maculatus lines (the new lentil-adapted line, three long-established lines, and one case of failed evolutionary rescue), we found that adaptation on lentil occurred via somewhat idiosyncratic evolutionary changes. Overall, our results suggest that evolutionary rescue in this system can be caused by very strong selection on multiple loci driving rapid and pronounced genomic change.

Adaptive introgression enables evolutionary rescue from extreme environmental pollution

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 364 (6439) ◽  
pp. 455-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elias M. Oziolor ◽  
Noah M. Reid ◽  
Sivan Yair ◽  
Kristin M. Lee ◽  
Sarah Guberman VerPloeg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Pollution Level ◽  
Selection Coefficient ◽  
Fundulus Grandis ◽  
Adaptive Introgression ◽  
Aryl Hydrocarbon ◽  
Evolutionary Rescue ◽  
Recent Selection

Radical environmental change that provokes population decline can impose constraints on the sources of genetic variation that may enable evolutionary rescue. Adaptive toxicant resistance has rapidly evolved in Gulf killifish (Fundulus grandis) that occupy polluted habitats. We show that resistance scales with pollution level and negatively correlates with inducibility of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) signaling. Loci with the strongest signatures of recent selection harbor genes regulating AHR signaling. Two of these loci introgressed recently (18 to 34 generations ago) from Atlantic killifish (F. heteroclitus). One introgressed locus contains a deletion in AHR that confers a large adaptive advantage [selection coefficient (s) = 0.8]. Given the limited migration of killifish, recent adaptive introgression was likely mediated by human-assisted transport. We suggest that interspecies connectivity may be an important source of adaptive variation during extreme environmental change.

scholarly journals Evolutionary rescue and adaptation to abrupt environmental change depends upon the history of stress

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1610) ◽  
pp. 20120079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gonzalez ◽  
Graham Bell
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Salt Concentration ◽  
Quadratic Function ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Evolutionary Rescue ◽  
Low Salt ◽  
Large Populations ◽  
Declining Populations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sublethal Concentrations

Whether evolution will be rapid enough to rescue declining populations will depend upon population size, the supply of genetic variation, the degree of maladaptation and the historical direction of selection. We examined whether the level of environmental stress experienced by a population prior to abrupt environmental change affects the probability of evolutionary rescue (ER). Hundreds of populations of two species of yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces paradoxus were exposed to a range of sublethal concentrations of salt for approximately a hundred generations before transfer to a concentration of salt lethal to the ancestor (150 g l –1 NaCl). The fitness of surviving populations of both species was a quadratic function of yield: fitness was greatest for large populations that had been selected on low salt concentrations (less than 20 g l −1 NaCl) and small populations that had adapted to high salt (more than 80 g l −1 NaCl). However, differences occurred between species in the probability of ER. The frequency of ER was positively correlated with salt concentration for S. cerevisiae, but negatively correlated with salt concentration in S. paradoxus . These results not only demonstrate that past environmental conditions can determine the probability of ER after abrupt environmental change, but also suggest that there may even be differences between closely related species that are worth further exploration.

scholarly journals A Quantitative Evaluation of the Multiple Narratives of the Recent Sahelian Regreening*

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mimi Stith ◽  
Alessandra Giannini ◽  
John del Corral ◽  
Susana Adamo ◽  
Alex de Sherbinin
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Burkina Faso ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Southern Central ◽  
Second Category ◽  
The Impact

Abstract A spatial analysis is presented that aims to synthesize the evidence for climate and social dimensions of the “regreening” of the Sahel. Using an independently constructed archival database of donor-funded interventions in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Senegal in response to the persistence of drought in the 1970s and 1980s, the spatial distribution of these interventions is examined in relation to population density and to trends in precipitation and in greenness. Three categories of environmental change are classified: 1) regions at the northern grassland/shrubland edge of the Sahel where NDVI varies interannually with precipitation, 2) densely populated cropland regions of the Sahel where significant trends in precipitation and NDVI decouple at interannual time scales, and 3) regions at the southern savanna edge of the Sahel where NDVI variation is independent of precipitation. Examination of the spatial distribution of environmental change, number of development projects, and population density brings to the fore the second category, covering the cropland areas where population density and regreening are higher than average. While few, regions in this category coincide with emerging hotspots of regreening in northern Burkina Faso and southern central Niger known from case study literature. In examining the impact of efforts to rejuvenate the Sahelian environment and livelihoods in the aftermath of the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s against the backdrop of a varying and uncertain climate, the transition from desertification to regreening discourses is framed in the context of adaptation to climate change.

scholarly journals Perspectives from animal demography on incorporating evolutionary mechanism into plant population dynamics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Paniw
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Plant Population ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Plant Population Dynamics ◽  
Future Research Agenda ◽  
Powerful Approach

AbstractWith a growing number of long-term, individual-based data on natural populations available, it has become increasingly evident that environmental change affects populations through complex, simultaneously occurring demographic and evolutionary processes. Analyses of population-level responses to environmental change must therefore integrate demography and evolution into one coherent framework. Integral projection models (IPMs), which can relate genetic and phenotypic traits to demographic and population-level processes, offer a powerful approach for such integration. However, a rather artificial divide exists in how plant and animal population ecologists use IPMs. Here, I argue for the integration of the two sub-disciplines, particularly focusing on how plant ecologists can diversify their toolset to investigate selection pressures and eco-evolutionary dynamics in plant population models. I provide an overview of approaches that have applied IPMs for eco-evolutionary studies and discuss a potential future research agenda for plant population ecologists. Given an impending extinction crisis, a holistic look at the interacting processes mediating population persistence under environmental change is urgently needed.

scholarly journals Changes in the distribution of fitness effects and adaptive mutational spectra following a single first step towards adaptation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitra Aggeli ◽  
Yuping Li ◽  
Gavin Sherlock
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Relative Fitness ◽  
Single Point Mutation ◽  
Historical Contingency ◽  
Mutational Spectra ◽  
Fitness Effects ◽  
Mutational Step ◽  
Diminishing Returns

AbstractThe fitness effects of random mutations are contingent upon the genetic and environmental contexts in which they occur, and this contributes to the unpredictability of evolutionary outcomes at the molecular level. Despite this unpredictability, the rate of adaptation in homogeneous environments tends to decrease over evolutionary time, due to diminishing returns epistasis, causing relative fitness gains to be predictable over the long term. Here, we studied the extent of diminishing returns epistasis and the changes in the adaptive mutational spectra after yeast populations have already taken their first adaptive mutational step. We used three distinct adaptive clones that arose under identical conditions from a common ancestor, from which they diverge by a single point mutation, to found populations that we further evolved. We followed the evolutionary dynamics of these populations by lineage tracking and determined adaptive outcomes using fitness assays and whole genome sequencing. We found compelling evidence for diminishing returns: fitness gains during the 2nd step of adaptation are smaller than those of the 1st step, due to a compressed distribution of fitness effects in the 2nd step. We also found strong evidence for historical contingency at the genic level: the beneficial mutational spectra of the 2nd-step adapted genotypes differ with respect to their ancestor and to each other, despite the fact that the three founders’ 1st-step mutations provided their fitness gains due to similar phenotypic improvements. While some targets of selection in the second step are shared with those seen in the common ancestor, other targets appear to be contingent on the specific first step mutation, with more phenotypically similar founding clones having more similar adaptive mutational spectra. Finally, we found that disruptive mutations, such as nonsense and frameshift, were much more common in the first step of adaptation, contributing an additional way that both diminishing returns and historical contingency are evident during 2nd step adaptation.

scholarly journals Cucumber mosaic virus satellite RNAs that induce similar symptoms in melon plants show large differences in fitness

2011 ◽  
Vol 92 (8) ◽  
pp. 1930-1938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica Betancourt ◽  
Aurora Fraile ◽  
Fernando García-Arenal
Keyword(s):  
Cucumber Mosaic Virus ◽  
Mosaic Virus ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Aphid Transmission ◽  
Helper Virus ◽  
Relative Fitness ◽  
Single Infection ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Satellite Rnas

Two groups of Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) satellite RNAs (satRNAs), necrogenic and non-necrogenic, can be differentiated according to the symptoms they cause in tomato plants, a host in which they also differ in fitness. In most other CMV hosts these CMV-satRNA cause similar symptoms. Here, we analyse whether they differ in traits determining their relative fitness in melon plants, in which the two groups of CMV-satRNAs cause similar symptoms. For this, ten necrogenic and ten non-necrogenic field satRNA genotypes were assayed with Fny-CMV as a helper virus. Neither type of CMV-satRNA modified Fny-CMV symptoms, and both types increased Fny-CMV virulence similarly, as measured by decreases in plant biomass and lifespan. Necrogenic and non-necrogenic satRNAs differed in their ability to multiply in melon tissues; necrogenic satRNAs accumulated to higher levels both in single infection and in competition with non-necrogenic satRNAs. Indeed, multiplication of some non-necrogenic satRNAs was undetectable. Transmission between hosts by aphids was less efficient for necrogenic satRNAs as a consequence of a more severe reduction of CMV accumulation in leaves. The effect of CMV accumulation on aphid transmission was not compensated for by differences in satRNA encapsidation efficiency or transmissibility to CMV progeny. Thus, necrogenic and non-necrogenic satRNAs differ in their relative fitness in melon, and trade-offs are apparent between the within-host and between-host components of satRNA fitness. Hence, CMV-satRNAs could have different evolutionary dynamics in CMV host-plant species in which they do not differ in pathogenicity.

Global Environmental Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases

2019 ◽  
pp. 38-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Machalaba ◽  
Cristina Romanelli ◽  
Peter Stoett
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Economic Costs ◽  
Knowledge Gaps ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Global Environmental

The prediction of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) and the avoidance of their tremendous social and economic costs is contingent on the identification of their most likely drivers. It is argued that the drivers of global environmental change (and climate change as both a driver and an impact) are often the drivers of EIDs; and that the two overlap to such a strong degree that targeting these drivers is sound epidemiological policy. Several drivers overlap with the leading causes of biodiversity loss, providing opportunities for health and biodiversity sectors to generate synergies at local and global levels. This chapter provides a primer on EID ecology, reviews underlying drivers and mechanisms that facilitate pathogen spillover and spread, provides suggested policy and practice-based actions toward the prevention of EIDs in the context of environmental change, and identifies knowledge gaps for the purpose of further research.

Global Environmental Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases

2017 ◽  
pp. 24-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Machalaba ◽  
Cristina Romanelli ◽  
Peter Stoett
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Economic Costs ◽  
Knowledge Gaps ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Global Environmental

The prediction of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) and the avoidance of their tremendous social and economic costs is contingent on the identification of their most likely drivers. It is argued that the drivers of global environmental change (and climate change as both a driver and an impact) are often the drivers of EIDs; and that the two overlap to such a strong degree that targeting these drivers is sound epidemiological policy. Several drivers overlap with the leading causes of biodiversity loss, providing opportunities for health and biodiversity sectors to generate synergies at local and global levels. This chapter provides a primer on EID ecology, reviews underlying drivers and mechanisms that facilitate pathogen spillover and spread, provides suggested policy and practice-based actions toward the prevention of EIDs in the context of environmental change, and identifies knowledge gaps for the purpose of further research.

scholarly journals Towards more meaningful scenarios of biodiversity responses to land-use change in Central Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Kamp ◽  
Martin Freitag ◽  
Norbert Hölzel
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Grazing Intensity ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
Land Use Patterns ◽  
Use Patterns

Abstract We here respond to Nunez et al. (Reg Environ Chang 20:39, 2020), recently published in Regional Environmental Change. Nunez et al. project biodiversity responses to land-use and climate change in Central Asia. Their projections are based on scenarios of changing socio-economic and environmental conditions for the years 2040, 2070, and 2100. We suggest that the predicted magnitude of biodiversity loss might be biased high, due to four shortfalls in the data used and the methods employed. These are (i) the use of an inadequate measure of “biodiversity intactness,” (ii) a failure to acknowledge for large spatial variation in land-use trends across the five considered Central Asian countries, (iii) the assumption of a strictly linear, negative relationship between livestock grazing intensity and the abundance of animals and plants, and (iv) the extrapolation of grazing-related biodiversity responses into areas of cropland. We conclude that future scenarios of biodiversity response to regional environmental change in Central Asia will benefit from using regional, not global, spatial data on livestock distribution and land-use patterns. The use of extra-regional data on the relationships between biodiversity and land-use or climate should be avoided.

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