THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PREDICTABILITY ON THE ECO-EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS OF INTEGRATED PHENOTYPES: GENETIC SIGNATURES AND ROLES FOR PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY
Evolutionary biology is central to understanding interactions between animals and the environment, required to foresee potential impacts of climate change on locally adapted populations of species. The work in this proposal focuses on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of animal behaviour. In our proposal, we aim to combine the temporal and spatial variation on local adaptation going deep into the ultimate genetic mechanism combining correlative and experimental approaches. We firmly believe that detecting the deepest roots where evolution can observe, i.e. genetic change (objective2), merging areas like evolutionary ecology and biogeography (objective 3), and experimentally testing how environmental stochasticity influence life-history traits (objective 4) will certainly attract major interest. These objectives, along a set of collaborations with world-leading researchers would undoubtedly contribute to enhancing Spains (and Europes) reputation as a place for conducting original science, and one that is characterized for its impact on the research community and the society as a whole. The proposed research addresses questions of general scientific interest, particularly to those that aim to address the impact that environmental change has on biodiversity loss, since we are considering multiple phenotypes and multiple environmental factors in two wild population of two different species, but also within a biogeographical context. The answers to the main scientific questions will have major implications to how we understand ecological and evolutionary processes of adaptation,and how we interpret animal behaviour. Importantly, these answers will be delivered both from a well-studied and completely natural system and in an experimental setup in captive conditions. Beside the scientific values, the project is also of high educational relevance.
At international level, EU is aware of the key consequences that environmental in general and climate in particular may have on biodiversity loss. The main financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, The Horizon 2020, has become the European 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness. Since this proposal is also focused on exploring the relative contribution of different environmental variables on local adaptation in two species in two European countries, our results will shed light on where and what environmental factors may drive local adaptation and therefore, population persistence. We anticipate that our results will be highly relevant for policy makers at national and at international level.
In addition, this work will also continue contributing to research opportunities for MsC, PhD and postdoc students, thereby improving educational and research training. Along with the excellence, methodological approach suggested and long-term data sets collected in wild populations is crucial to provide a state-of-the-art view of current science in general and of biological studies in particular.
Evolutionary biology is central to understanding interactions between animals and the environment, required to foresee potential impacts of climate change on locally adapted populations of species. The work in this proposal focuses on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of animal behaviour. In our proposal, we aim to combine the temporal and spatial variation on local adaptation going deep into the ultimate genetic mechanism combining correlative and experimental approaches. We firmly believe that detecting the deepest roots where evolution can observe, i.e. genetic change (objective2), merging areas like evolutionary ecology and biogeography (objective 3), and experimentally testing how environmental stochasticity influence life-history traits (objective 4) will certainly attract major interest. These objectives, along a set of collaborations with world-leading researchers would undoubtedly contribute to enhancing Spains (and Europes) reputation as a place for conducting original science, and one that is characterized for its impact on the research community and the society as a whole. The proposed research addresses questions of general scientific interest, particularly to those that aim to address the impact that environmental change has on biodiversity loss, since we are considering multiple phenotypes and multiple environmental factors in two wild population of two different species, but also within a biogeographical context. The answers to the main scientific questions will have major implications to how we understand ecological and evolutionary processes of adaptation,and how we interpret animal behaviour. Importantly, these answers will be delivered both from a well-studied and completely natural system and in an experimental setup in captive conditions. Beside the scientific values, the project is also of high educational relevance.
At international level, EU is aware of the key consequences that environmental in general and climate in particular may have on biodiversity loss. The main financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, The Horizon 2020, has become the European 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness. Since this proposal is also focused on exploring the relative contribution of different environmental variables on local adaptation in two species in two European countries, our results will shed light on where and what environmental factors may drive local adaptation and therefore, population persistence. We anticipate that our results will be highly relevant for policy makers at national and at international level.
In addition, this work will also continue contributing to research opportunities for MsC, PhD and postdoc students, thereby improving educational and research training. Along with the excellence, methodological approach suggested and long-term data sets collected in wild populations is crucial to provide a state-of-the-art view of current science in general and of biological studies in particular.