Hu Yisi, Zhou Wenliang, Hu Yibo, Wei Fuwen
Center for Evolution and Conservation Biology, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, China.
CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy Sciences, Beijing, China.
Mol Biol Evol. 2025 Jun 4;42(6). doi: 10.1093/molbev/msaf122.
Evolutionary insights are fundamental to biodiversity conservation, as they reveal the ultimate causes that drive adaptation and persistence of populations, species, and ecosystems over time. In recent decades, the field of conservation biology has expanded to incorporate species' evolutionary histories, adaptive mechanisms, rapid evolution, and interactions with ecosystems to better understand the complexities of species' persistence in the long run. To address this growing recognition that conservation is inherently an evolutionary question, we propose "conservation evolutionary biology" as a new subdiscipline of conservation biology. It aims to explore the past, present, and future of biodiversity from an evolutionary viewpoint, revealing how species and ecosystems respond and adapt to changing environments, thereby to inform science-based, future-oriented conservation strategies to sustain biodiversity in a rapidly changing world. This article highlights the principles, research focus, methodologies, and practices of this emerging field, encouraging further exploration to address the conservation challenges of our time within a unified framework.
进化见解对于生物多样性保护至关重要，因为它们揭示了驱动种群、物种和生态系统随时间推移而适应和存续的根本原因。近几十年来，保护生物学领域不断拓展，纳入了物种的进化历史、适应机制、快速进化以及与生态系统的相互作用，以便从长远角度更好地理解物种存续的复杂性。为应对人们日益认识到保护本质上是一个进化问题，我们提出“保护进化生物学”作为保护生物学的一个新分支学科。它旨在从进化视角探索生物多样性的过去、现在和未来，揭示物种和生态系统如何应对并适应不断变化的环境，从而为基于科学、面向未来的保护战略提供信息，以在快速变化的世界中维持生物多样性。本文重点介绍了这一新兴领域的原理、研究重点、方法和实践，鼓励在统一框架内进行进一步探索，以应对我们这个时代的保护挑战。
