Lynn Govaert: Eco-evolutionary dynamics - Concepts and Metrics
Channel: NorthWestBiomathsDataScienceSeminars
Date: 19/03/2021

North West Seminar Series of Mathematical Biology and Data Science 

Wednesday, 17th February 2021 (hosted by Ivo Siekmann) 

https://www.cms.livjm.ac.uk/APMSeminar/



Abstract:
The increasing amount of studies showing evidence of rapid evolution occurring on similar timescales as ecological processes have demonstrated the importance of including eco-evolutionary dynamics to further our understanding on population, community, and ecosystem processes. Most empirical studies still focus on the ecological consequences of evolutionary change within a single species. However, in natural systems species co-occur together, comprising a community. Hence, all member species may display an evolutionary response. Thus, focusing on evolution of a single species may over-or underestimate the effect of evolution on ecological processes. We can build from previous work on fundamental processes in community ecology (selection, dispersal, ecological drift, and speciation) and of evolutionary biology (selection, gene flow, genetic drift, and mutation) to address how existing work on eco-evolutionary dynamics in multi-species communities can be evaluated using interactions between these analogous evolutionary and community processes. This will allows us to identify knowledge gaps and future directions with a focus on existing frameworks,  suggest experimental designs that include interactions between community and evolutionary processes, and develop metrics that can quantify contributions of these fundamental processes.