Journal: Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics

Abbreviation

Publisher

Annual Reviews

Journal Volumes

ISSN

1543-592X

Description

Filters

2006 - 200922010 - 20183
Reset filters

Search Results

Publications1 - 5 of 5
  • Climate Change and Phenological Mismatch in Trophic Interactions Among Plants, Insects, and Vertebrates
    Item type: Review Article
    Renner, Susanne S.; Zohner, Constantin M. (2018)
    Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics
    Phenological mismatch results when interacting species change the timing of regularly repeated phases in their life cycles at different rates. We review whether this continuously ongoing phenomenon, also known as trophic asynchrony, is becoming more common under ongoing rapid climate change. In antagonistic trophic interactions, any mismatch will have negative impacts for only one of the species, whereas in mutualistic interactions, both partners are expected to suffer. Trophic mismatch is therefore expected to last for evolutionarily short periods, perhaps only a few seasons, adding to the difficulty of attributing it to climate change, which requires long-term data. So far, the prediction that diverging phenologies linked to climate change will cause mismatch is most clearly met in antagonistic interactions at high latitudes in the Artic. There is limited evidence of phenological mismatch in mutualistic interactions, possibly because of strong selection on mutualists to have co-adapted phenological strategies. The study of individual plasticity, population variation, and the genetic bases for phenological strategies is in its infancy. Recent work on woody plants revealed the large imprint of historic climate change on temperature, chilling, and day-length thresholds used by different species to synchronize their phenophases, which in the Northern Hemisphere has led to biogeographic phenological regions in which long-lived plants have adapted to particular interannual and intermillennial amplitudes of climate change.
  • Limits to the adaptative potential of small populations
    Item type: Journal Article
    Willi, Yvonne; Van Buskirk, Josh; Hoffmann, Ary A. (2006)
    Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics
    Small populations are predicted to have reduced capacity to adapt to environmental change for two reasons. First, population genetic models indicate that genetic variation and potential response to selection should be positively correlated with population size. The empirical support for this prediction is mixed: DNA markers usually reveal low heterozygosity in small populations, whereas quantitative traits show reduced heritability only in the smallest and most inbred populations. Quantitative variation can even increase in bottlenecked populations although this effect seems unlikely to increase the adaptive potential of populations. Second, individuals in small populations have lower fitness owing to environmental stress and genetic problems such as inbreeding, which can substantially increase the extinction probability of populations in changing environments. This second reason has not been included in assessments of critical population size assuring evolvability and makes it likely that many small threatened populations have a decreased potential for adaptation.
  • The ecology and evolution of microbes that manipulate host reproduction
    Item type: Journal Article
    Engelstädter, Jan; Hurst, Gregory D.D. (2009)
    Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics
    Inherited microorganisms that manipulate the reproduction of their host are a common feature in arthropod biology. Although research initially concentrated on why these manipulations were observed, more recent study has emphasized the profound effects they may have on the ecology and evolution of their host. We review the natural history and evolutionary ecology of inherited reproductive parasites, before examining their impact on host ecology and evolution. We posit that sex-ratio distorting microorganisms sometimes dominate their host's microevolution and reproductive ecology, driving extremely rapid natural selection, altering the molecular evolution landscape, and potentially causing evolution in conserved systems such as sex determination. The evolutionary importance of symbionts inducing cytoplasmic incompatibility lies more in the barriers to gene flow they can produce, which may then contribute to reproductive isolation and speciation. Throughout, we link theory with empirical data, point to areas of ignorance, and identify promising avenues of future research.
  • Generic Indicators of Ecological Resilience: Inferring the Chance of a Critical Transition
    Item type: Journal Article
    Scheffer, Marten; Carpenter, Stephen R.; Dakos, Vasilis; et al. (2015)
    Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics
    Ecological resilience is the ability of a system to persist in the face of perturbations. Although resilience has been a highly influential concept, its interpretation has remained largely qualitative. Here we describe an emerging family of methods for quantifying resilience on the basis of observations. A first set of methods is based on the phenomenon of critical slowing down, which implies that recovery upon small perturbations becomes slower as a system approaches a tipping point. Such slowing down can be measured experimentally but may also be indirectly inferred from changes in natural fluctuations and spatial patterns. A second group of methods aims to characterize the resilience of alternative states in probabilistic terms based on large numbers of observations as in long time series or satellite images. These generic approaches to measuring resilience complement the system-specific knowledge needed to infer the effects of environmental change on the resilience of complex systems.
  • Rethinking Community Assembly through the Lens of Coexistence Theory
    Item type: Journal Article
    Hille Ris Lambers, Janneke; Adler, P.B.; Harpole, W.S.; et al. (2012)
    Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics
    Although research on the role of competitive interactions during community assembly began decades ago, a recent revival of interest has led to new discoveries and research opportunities. Using contemporary coexistence theory that emphasizes stabilizing niche differences and relative fitness differences, we evaluate three empirical approaches for studying community assembly. We show that experimental manipulations of the abiotic or biotic environment, assessments of trait-phylogeny-environment relationships, and investigations of frequency-dependent population growth all suggest strong influences of stabilizing niche differences and fitness differences on the outcome of plant community assembly. Nonetheless, due to the limitations of these approaches applied in isolation, we still have a poor understanding of which niche axes and which traits determine the outcome of competition and community structure. Combining current approaches represents our best chance of achieving this goal, which is fundamental to conceptual ecology and to the management of plant communities under global change.
Publications1 - 5 of 5