The world is changing fast, challenging the persistence of many wild populations. Apart from plastic and demographic mechanisms, adaptive evolution (genetic changes in response to natural selection) can contribute to populations persistence in changing environments. But is adaptive evolution prevalent enough and fast enough to make a difference?
Quantitative genetic analyses of long-term population monitoring provide powerful tools to reveal ongoing evolution dynamics and understand their mechanisms.
Timothee will present results from our recent Science paper on the rate of adaptive evolution in some bird and mammal populations, lingering a bit on the fascinating stuff hidden in supplementary information.
Timothee will then discuss some follow-up new work dealing with the importance of sexual genetic conflict in adaptation, the potential for genomics to boost our understanding of contemporary adaptation, and the link between adaptive evolution and the dynamic/persistence of populations facing a quickly deteriorating environment.