Ecology & Evolution research group, Institute of Integrative & Comparative Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
Ecol Lett. 2013 Jun;16(6):754-63. doi: 10.1111/ele.12107. Epub 2013 Apr 8.
Understanding the consequences of environmental change on ecological and evolutionary dynamics is inherently problematic because of the complex interplay between them. Using invertebrates in microcosms, we characterise phenotypic, population and evolutionary dynamics before, during and after exposure to a novel environment and harvesting over 20 generations. We demonstrate an evolved change in life-history traits (the age- and size-at-maturity, and survival to maturity) in response to selection caused by environmental change (wild to laboratory) and to harvesting (juvenile or adult). Life-history evolution, which drives changes in population growth rate and thus population dynamics, includes an increase in age-to-maturity of 76% (from 12.5 to 22 days) in the unharvested populations as they adapt to the new environment. Evolutionary responses to harvesting are outweighed by the response to environmental change (~ 1.4 vs. 4% change in age-at-maturity per generation). The adaptive response to environmental change converts a negative population growth trajectory into a positive one: an example of evolutionary rescue.
理解环境变化对生态和进化动态的影响本质上是有问题的，因为它们之间存在着复杂的相互作用。我们使用无脊椎动物的微宇宙实验，在暴露于新环境和经过 20 多代收割之前、期间和之后，描述表型、种群和进化动态。我们证明了生活史特征（成熟时的年龄和大小，以及成熟时的存活率）在进化上发生了变化，这是对由环境变化（野外到实验室）和收割（幼年或成年）引起的选择的反应。生活史进化会改变种群增长率，从而影响种群动态，包括未收割种群的成熟年龄增加 76%（从 12.5 天增加到 22 天），因为它们适应了新环境。收割的进化反应被环境变化的反应所抵消（每代成熟年龄的变化约为 1.4%对 4%）。对环境变化的适应性反应将负的种群增长轨迹转化为正的轨迹：这是进化拯救的一个例子。
