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Thomas Schoener's paper in the Jan.
28 issue of Science is based on his talk, "The Newest
Synthesis: Evolution + Ecology = EvoEco, " at the Darwin/Chicago
2009 conference. Darwin conference...
Click here for more information.
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Ecology drives evolution. In today's issue of the journal
Science, UC Davis expert Thomas Schoener describes growing
evidence that the reverse is also true, and explores what that
might mean to our understanding of how environmental change affects
species and vice-versa.
A classic example of ecology influencing evolution is seen in a
Galápagos ground finch, Geospiza fortis. In this species,
larger beaks dominated the population after dry years when large
seeds were more abundant. After wet years, the direction of natural
selection reversed, favoring smaller beaks that better handled the
small seeds produced in the wet environment.
Environmental factors had given birds with certain genes a
survival advantage.
But does evolution affect ecology over similar time scales?
Scientists are increasingly thinking that the answer is yes, says
Schoener, who points toward numerous examples of organisms evolving
rapidly. This sets the stage for the possibility that evolutionary
dynamics routinely interact with ecological dynamics.
Schoener writes: "If ecology affects evolution (long supported)
and evolution affects ecology (becoming increasingly supported),
then what? The transformed ecology might affect evolution, and so
on, back and forth in a feedback loop."
Still to be discovered in this emerging field of
"eco-evolutionary dynamics," he concludes, is just how much
evolutionary changes substantially affect ecological traits such as
species populations and community structure. Schoener calls for a
major research effort to find out.
The study, titled "The Newest Synthesis: Understanding the
Interplay of Evolutionary and Ecological Dynamics," was supported
by grants from the National Science Foundation.
In an unusual occurrence, Schoener is a co-author of a second
paper in the same issue of Science. His former doctoral
student, Jonah Piovia-Scott, is that paper's lead author.
SOURCE
