scholarly journals Digest: Toward predicting evolutionary response to environmental change: The power of integrated experimental and genetic studies*

Evolution ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 800-801
Author(s):  
Øystein H. Opedal
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Genetic Studies ◽  
Evolutionary Response ◽  
Response To Environmental Change

scholarly journals Modes of response to environmental change and the elusive empirical evidence for bet hedging

2011 ◽  
Vol 278 (1712) ◽  
pp. 1601-1609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Simons
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Bet Hedging ◽  
Fluctuating Selection ◽  
Hedging Strategies ◽  
Evolutionary Response ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Response To Environmental Change

Uncertainty is a problem not only in human decision-making, but is a prevalent quality of natural environments and thus requires evolutionary response. Unpredictable natural selection is expected to result in the evolution of bet-hedging strategies, which are adaptations to long-term fluctuating selection. Despite a recent surge of interest in bet hedging, its study remains mired in conceptual and practical difficulties, compounded by confusion over what constitutes evidence for its existence. Here, I attempt to resolve misunderstandings about bet hedging and its relationship with other modes of response to environmental change, identify the challenges inherent to its study and assess the state of existing empirical evidence. The variety and distribution of plausible bet-hedging traits found across 16 phyla in over 100 studies suggest their ubiquity. Thus, bet hedging should be considered a specific mode of response to environmental change. However, the distribution of bet-hedging studies across evidence categories—defined according to potential strength—is heavily skewed towards weaker categories, underscoring the need for direct appraisals of the adaptive significance of putative bet-hedging traits in nature.

scholarly journals Evolutionary rescue can maintain an oscillating community undergoing environmental change

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 20130036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregor F. Fussmann ◽  
Andrew Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Evolutionary Response ◽  
Evolutionary Rescue ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Internal Forces ◽  
Frequency Changes ◽  
Response To Environmental Change ◽  
Physiological Acclimation

The persistence of ecological communities is challenged by widespread and rapid environmental change. In many cases, persistence may not be assured via physiological acclimation or migration and so species must adapt rapidly in situ . This process of evolutionary rescue (ER) occurs when genetic adaptation allows a population to recover from decline initiated by environmental change that would otherwise cause extirpation. Community evolutionary rescue (CER) occurs when one or more species undergo a rapid evolutionary response to environmental change, resulting in the recovery of the ancestral community. Here, we study the dynamics of CER within a three-species community coexisting by virtue of resource oscillations brought about by nonlinear interactions between two species competing for a live resource. We allowed gradual environmental change to affect the traits that determine the strength and symmetry of the interaction among species. By allowing the component species to evolve rapidly, we found that: (i) trait evolution can allow CER and ensure the community persists by preventing competitive exclusion during environmental change, (ii) CER brings about a change in the character of the oscillations (period, amplitude) governing coexistence before and after environmental change, and (iii) CER may depend on evolutionary change that occurs simultaneously with or subsequently to environmental change. We were able to show that a change in the character of community oscillations may be a signature that a community is undergoing ER. Our study extends the theory on ER to a world of nonlinear community dynamics where—despite high-frequency changes of population abundances—adaptive evolutionary trait change can be gradual and directional, and therefore contribute to community rescue. ER may happen in real, complex communities that fluctuate owing to a mix of external and internal forces. Experiments testing this theory are now required to validate our predictions.

USING HISTORICAL ANNUAL REPORTS IN TEACHING: LETTING THE PAST BENEFIT THE PRESENT

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Amernic ◽  
Ramy Elitzur
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Cash Flow ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
The Past ◽  
Response To Environmental Change

In this article, it is suggested that accounting education may be enhanced by the use of published historical accounting materials, such as annual reports. Comparing such materials with modern reports serves to reinforce the notion that accounting evolves in response to environmental change. Further, requiring students to analytically derive cash flow statements from historical published annual reports provides several direct pedagogical benefits.

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