Background
We are on the verge of the 6th major mass extinction, due to human-caused habitat loss and environmental change. These changes take place very rapidly, but evolutionary biologists have documented in a wide range of natural and laboratory populations that that genetically diverse populations can rapidly adapt to changing conditions. Therefore, scientific investigations to predict the effects of climate change, as well as applied measures to mitigate these effects in disciplines like forestry, fisheries, and nature conservation, are often based on the idea that (semi)natural populations can adapt to a changing environment if they harbour sufficient genetic variation. But why, then, are we entering the 6th major mass extinction and not the 6th major mass adaptation? Are many conservation and mitigation measures unrealistic in their predictions and expectations?
An overarching question, addressed from different perspectives during this symposium, is whether short-term so-called microevolution and long-term or macroevolution are decoupled processes, or can be integrated into a predictive understanding of macroevolutionary phenomena and processes using our understanding (and models) of microevolutionary processes. This topic has for decades been of fundamental scientific interest, and has now become urgently important for our response to the ongoing climate and biodiversity crises.
Addressing these questions naturally involves different disciplines: geology and palaeontology, evolutionary biology and ecology, mathematical and statistical modelling. In recent years, individual disciplines have seen significant progress: improved statistics to analyse more complete fossil records and improved reconstructions of abiotic conditions, computational power and statistical techniques to construct and analyse molecular phylogenies of major groups of species, and availability of “-omics” techniques for non-model species. The proposed symposium aims to synthesize this progress.
Speakers
- Carl Simpson, Assistant professor at Colorado Museum of Natural History
- Christophe Pelabon, Professor at NTNU
- Daniele Silvestro, Assistant professor at the University of Fribourg
- Erin Saupe, Associate professor at the University of Oxford
- Frietson Gallis, Curator at Naturalis biodiversity Centre
- Jan Nordbotten, Professor at the university of Bergen
- Jonathan Rolland, Researcher at the university of Toulouse
- Kjetil Voje, Associate professor at the Natural History Museum in Oslo
- Lee Hsiang Liow, Professor at the Natural History Museum in Oslo
- Naoki Irie, Associate professor at the university of Tokyo
- Nils Christian Stenseth, Professor at the university of Oslo
- Shan Huang, Researcher at Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate research Centre
- Søren Faurby, Associate Professor at Gothenburg University
- Stacey Smith, Associate professor at Colorado University
- Thomas Ezard, Professor at the university of Southampton
- Wolfgang Kiessling, Professor at Geozentrum Nordbayern
Contact
For questions about the symposium, please contact the organizers at ratessymposium@gmail.com
Programme
Day 1: Plenary talks, open to anyone interested
9:00-9:15 Nils Chr. Stenseth, Professor at the University of Oslo
Welcome and introduction
9:15-9:45 Erin Saupe, Associate professor at the University of Oxford
Elucidating community and species' responses to environmental change across spatial and temporal scales.
9:45-10:15 Naoki Irie, Associate professor at Tokyo University
Organismal intrinsic factors possibly limiting evolutionary diversification. (online)
Coffee break
10:45-11:15 Shan Huang, Postdoc at Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center
Biotic-abiotic interactions shaping broad-scale biodiversity dynamics in space and time
11:15-11:45 Jan M. Nordbotten, Professor at the University of Bergen
Multiscale modelling of ecological processes to link micro- and macroevolution
11:45-12:15 Jonathan Rolland, Researcher at the university of Toulouse
Using fossils and present-day data to study how climatic preferences of vertebrates evolved over long time scales, and how this relates to current biodiversity patterns
Lunch break
13:45-14:15 Lee Hsiang Liow, Prof. at the Natural History Museum, Oslo
Intra and interspecific life history traits over varying time scales — is anything predictable?
14:15-14:45 Kjetil Voje, Associate Professor at the Natural History Museum, Oslo
Investigating the dynamics of the adaptive landscape on mesoevolutionary timescales using evolutionary time-series
14:45-15:15 Stacey Smith, Associate professor at Colorado University
Why are some convergent traits rare and others common? Microevolutionary drivers and macroevolutionary patterns in flower color evolution
Tea break
15:30-16:00 Christophe Pelabon, Professor at NTNU
Genetic architecture and (macro)evolutionary potential
16:00-16:30 Søren Faurby, Associate professor at University of Gothenburg
Anthropogenic biases in evolutionary patterns
16:30-17:00 Carl Simpson, Assistant professor at Colorado Museum of Natural History
Levels of selection and the connection between micro- and macroevolution. (online)
Morning Day 2: Plenary talks, open to anyone interested
9:00-9:30 Thomas Ezard, Professor at the University of Southampton
Identifying the regulating factors of biodiversity in deep time
9:30-10:00 Frietson Galis, curator at Naturalis biodiversity center, Leiden
Breaking constraints of the number of cervical vertebrae in mammals: On slow loris and pottos. (online)
Coffee break
10:30-11:00 Daniele Silvestro Assistant professor at the University of Fribourg
Modelling the effects of intraspecific variance on trait evolution
11:00-11:30 Wolfgang Kiessling, Professor at Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg
Vulnerability and adaptation to past climate changes across scales (online)
Lunch break
Afternoon Day 2: Group and plenary discussions
13:00-13:30
- The role of major environmental changes in origination and extinction.
- Integrating insights from past and present responses to environmental change.
- Development, evolutionary novelty, and new niches.
13:30-14:00
- What determines the persistence of (new) species?
- Biotic interactions: equivalents of ecological processes?
- (Gradual) adaptation vs. species selection
14:00-14:30
- What governs rates of phenotypic evolution?
- Is the rate of extinction dependent on taxon age?
- Are rates of higher taxon origination and extinction predictable?
Tea break
Plenary discussions
15:00-15:30
- Biotic response to small and large, fast and slow abiotic changes
15:30-16:00
- Biotic versus abiotic factors
16:00-16:30
- Modeling interacting processes: from taxon-specific descriptions to general predictions
16:30-17:00
- Things we don’t know yet but need to find out (Wrapping up)
Chair: Nils Chr. Stenseth