What is the problem/issue being addressed?
A key challenge for ecology and evolution today is to understand the impact of global environmental change on natural populations. Environmental change may have both immediate ecological response effects via plasticity in animal characteristics and properties ('phenotypic plasticity'), and more sustained evolutionary effects via genetic responses. The former may be comprised of immediate responses, but these may also be limited and may not necessarily enable a population to adapt to a changing environment. We know that the latter can also sometimes occur rapidly, but how often it does so is not yet clear, as identifying short-term genetic change in nature is difficult. A central challenge in understanding the effects of environmental change is therefore to distinguish ecological versus adaptive genetic evolutionary responses. Both are likely, but what is their relative importance, and how do they interact? And what are their implications for individual fitness, and for population dynamics?
Why important for society?
The significance of my programme lies in addressing the most substantial current challenge in ecology and evolutionary biology, the effects of current environmental change on biological systems. This work does so by
combining cutting‐edge genomic data, state-of-the-art statistical analytical tools and new conceptual advances with fundamental evolutionary theory. It combines measurements from multiple wild animal populations globally and will also inform the management of animal populations experiencing environmental change. Mammals frequently have large ecosystem impacts via herbivory or predation, as well as direct economic relevance. For the large herbivore species here, population management and hunting have substantial economic implications in their respective ranges. The meerkats, spotted hyaenas and Tasmanian devils also have high conservation and ecotourism significance for their respective countries. In all cases, understanding of populations’ responses to environmental change will have direct implications for management for the betterment and benefit of society.
What are the overall objectives?
This project will deliver a synthesis of analyses of multiple study systems, offering especially powerful insights into environmental change and evolutionary adaptation.
The work combines new genomic data, state‐of‐the‐art analytical methods and fundamental evolutionary theory with a powerful multi‐species consortium to address three linked Objectives:
1: to provide a substantive, comprehensive advance in our understanding and analysis of fitness, adaptation and social evolution;
2: to determine the effects of environmental variation on natural selection and adaptive evolutionary responses;
3: to quantify the relative impact of evolutionary vs ecological responses on phenotypes, fitness and population dynamics.
