Abstract<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nColonization and expansion into novel landscapes determine the\u00a0distribution and abundance of species in our rapidly changing\u00a0ecosystems worldwide. Colonization events are crucibles for rapid\u00a0evolution, but it is not known whether evolutionary changes arise
\nmainly after successful colonization has occurred, or if evolution\u00a0plays an immediate role, governing the growth and expansion speed of colonizing populations. There is evidence that spatial\u00a0evolutionary processes can speed range expansion within a few\u00a0generations because dispersal tendencies may evolve upwards at\u00a0range edges. Additionally, rapid adaptation to a novel environment\u00a0can increase population growth rates, which also promotes spread. However, the role of adaptive evolution and the relative contributions of spatial evolution and adaptation to expansion are unclear.\u00a0Using a model system, red flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum), we\u00a0either allowed or constrained evolution of populations colonizing a\u00a0novel environment and measured population growth and spread.\u00a0At the end of the experiment we assessed the fitness and dispersal\u00a0tendency of individuals originating either from the core or edge of\u00a0evolving populations or from nonevolving populations in a common\u00a0garden. Within six generations, evolving populations grew three\u00a0times larger and spread 46% faster than populations in which evolution was constrained. Increased size and expansion speed were\u00a0strongly driven by adaptation, whereas spatial evolutionary processes acting on edge subpopulations contributed less. This experimental evidence demonstrates that rapid evolution drives both\u00a0population growth and expansion speed and is thus crucial to consider for managing biological invasions and successfully introducing or reintroducing species for management and conservation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New paper co-authored by Megan Vahsen from her master’s work has just come out in PNAS! Szucs et al. 2017. Rapid adaptive evolution in novel environments acts as an architect of population range expansion. PNAS.\u00a0doi:10.1073\/pnas.1712934114\u00a0 Abstract Colonization and expansion into … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":597,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/paleolab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/paleolab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/paleolab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/paleolab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/597"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/paleolab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/paleolab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/paleolab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions\/807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/paleolab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/paleolab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/paleolab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}