Project description
Coping with stress in the wild
How do organisms in the wild cope with environmental stress caused by variation in resource quality? Seeking an answer, the European Research Council-funded META-STRESS project will move beyond laboratory experiments and focus on the Glanville fritillary butterfly. This is a unique opportunity to study processes from individual genes to metapopulation-level dynamics. META-STRESS will experimentally test the influence of environmental stress on life-history variation using individuals sampled from specific local populations with known ecological backgrounds. This will be combined with life-history assessments on siblings remaining in the wild, coupling laboratory and field-based studies. Using molecular approaches, it will unravel the significance of different mechanisms such as candidate genes, epigenetic inheritance and intestinal microbial communities. META-STRESS has the potential to generate groundbreaking results in evolutionary ecology.
Objective
Organisms in the wild are constantly challenged by environmental variation in e.g. resource quality. The goal of this project is to move beyond laboratory experiments to understand the mechanisms that allow organisms in the wild to cope with environmental stress. Understanding the responses and mechanisms operating in wild populations is critical for assessing the eco-evolutionary consequences of environmental stress.
The large metapopulation of the Glanville fritillary butterfly gives me a unique opportunity to study processes operating from genes within individuals all the way to metapopulation-level dynamics. I will use individuals sampled from families from specific local populations with known ecological background (based on > 20 years of data) to experimentally test the influence of environmental stress on life-history variation. I will combine these experiments with simultaneous life-history assessments on the siblings remaining in the wild, thus effectively coupling laboratory and field-based studies. I will integrate the ecological studies with molecular approaches to unravel the significance of different mechanisms – candidate genes, epigenetic inheritance and intestinal microbial communities – potentially influencing individual responses to environmental challenges. I will focus on the influence of host plant quality as an environmental stressor, which is known to greatly influence life histories in many organisms, and which can be manipulated in the laboratory and assessed in the wild.
The proposed research has potential for groundbreaking results in evolutionary ecology, as the results will increase our understanding of 1) how individual responses to unfavorable environmental conditions and the underlying mechanisms vary within and among local populations in a spatially and temporally heterogeneous environment, and 2) how the consequent life-history variation influences the ecological and microevolutionary dynamics of wild populations.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences evolutionary biology
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology evolutionary ecology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics epigenetics
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2014-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
00014 HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Finland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.