Evolution of dispersal in spatially and temporally variable environments: The importance of life cycles

Evolution ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 1925-1937 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Massol ◽  
Florence Débarre
2021 ◽  
pp. 273-284
Author(s):  
Shripad Tuljapurkar ◽  
Wenyun Zuo

Evolutionary demography has grown rapidly in recent years, as the biological topics of life history evolution and evolution in population with complex life cycles have benefitted from and contributed to a broader focus on evolutionary biodemography. This chapter provides a critical summary of the central ideas and methods. The authors emphasise theoretical methods, starting with the main ideas that have attracted attention in the field, the assumptions behind these, and efforts to relax those assumptions, and provide a short account of some new directions. The chapter begins with the classic work of Peter Medawar and William Hamilton and discusses the connections, applications, assumptions, and limitations related to their ideas and results, e.g. sensitivity and corresponding elasticity of growth rate on fertility and survival. It highlights extensions to variable environments and the large body of theory around that topic. Next the chapter discusses how these theoretical methods are related to analyses and theories of post-reproductive life, via the general concept of ‘borrowing fitness’. Finally, the chapter discusses nonlinear models of mutation and selection and density-dependent models.


Author(s):  
Ludwig Leidinger ◽  
Juliano Sarmento Cabral

AbstractThe reaction of species to changing conditions determines how community composition will change functionally — not only by (temporal) species turnover, but also by trait shifts within species. For the latter, selection from standing variation has been suggested to be more efficient than acquiring new mutations. Yet, studies on community trait composition and trait selection largely focus on phenotypic variation in ecological traits, whereas the underlying genomic traits remain relatively understudied despite evidence of their role to standing variation. Using a genome-explicit, niche- and individual-based model, we address the potential interactions between genomic and ecological traits shaping communities under an environmental selective forcing, namely temporal variation. In this model, all ecological traits are explicitly coded by the genome. For our experiments, we initialized 90 replicate communities, each with ca. 350 initial species, characterized by random genomic and ecological trait combinations, on a 2D spatially-explicit landscape with two orthogonal gradients (temperature and resource use). We exposed each community to two contrasting scenarios: without (i.e. static environments) and with temporal variation. We then analyzed emerging compositions of both genomic and ecological traits at the community, population and genomic levels. Communities in variable environments were species poorer than in static environments, populations more abundant and genomes had a higher numbers of genes. The surviving genomes (i.e. those selected by variable environments) coded for enhanced environmental tolerance and smaller biomass, which resulted in faster life cycles and thus also in increased potential for evolutionary rescue. Even under the constant environmental filtering presented by temporal environmental variation, larger, more linked genomes allowed selection of increased variation in dispersal abilities. Our results provide clues to how sexually-reproducing diploid plant communities might react to increased environmental variation and highlights the importance of genomic traits and their interaction with ecological traits for eco-evolutionary responses to changing climates.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-87
Author(s):  
György Kovács ◽  
Rabab Benotsmane ◽  
László Dudás

Recent tendencies – such as the life-cycles of products are shorter while consumers require more complex and more unique final products – poses many challenges to the production. The industrial sector is going through a paradigm shift. The traditional centrally controlled production processes will be replaced by decentralized control, which is built on the self-regulating ability of intelligent machines, products and workpieces that communicate with each other continuously. This new paradigm known as Industry 4.0. This conception is the introduction of digital network-linked intelligent systems, in which machines and products will communicate to one another in order to establish smart factories in which self-regulating production will be established. In this article, at first the essence, main goals and basic elements of Industry 4.0 conception is described. After it the autonomous systems are introduced which are based on multi agent systems. These systems include the collaborating robots via artificial intelligence which is an essential element of Industry 4.0.


1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve King

Re-creating the social, economic and demographic life-cycles of ordinary people is one way in which historians might engage with the complex continuities and changes which underlay the development of early modern communities. Little, however, has been written on the ways in which historians might deploy computers, rather than card indexes, to the task of identifying such life cycles from the jumble of the sources generated by local and national administration. This article suggests that multiple-source linkage is central to historical and demographic analysis, and reviews, in broad outline, some of the procedures adopted in a study which aims at large scale life cycle reconstruction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-72
Author(s):  
E. A. Ershova

Сalanoid copepods of the genus Pseudocalanus play an important role in the plankton communities of the Arctic and boreal seas, often dominating in numbers and constituting a significant proportion of the biomass of zooplankton. Despite their high presence and significance in the shelf plankton communities, species-specific studies of the biology of these are significantly hampered by extremely small morphological differences between them, especially at the juvenile stages, at which they are virtually indistinguishable. In this paper, we describe a new, routine and low-cost molecular method for identifying all Pseudocalanus species found in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic: the Arctic P. acuspes, P. minutus and the boreal P. moultoni and P. elongatus, and apply it to describe the relative distribution of these species in four locations of the Arctic and sub-Arctic. With this method, species-specific polymerase chain reaction (ssPCR), mass identification of individuals of any developmental stage, including nauplii, is possible. This method can serve as an excellent tool for studying the species-specific biology of this group, describing their life cycles, as well as monitoring changes in Arctic marine ecosystems under the influence of changing climate.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-384

Many Public Aquaria have been designed and constructed all over the world during the last three decades. The serial arrangement of relatively small, rectangular, concrete tanks has been replaced by fewer large, irregularly shaped tanks, replicating habitats. The “taxonomic concept” of displaying specimens in the old aquaria has now been succeeded by the more ecological, “community concept” type of display. At the same time most of the “old aquaria” have been renovated. Aquarium missions have also been broadened nowadays including research, conservation and education. Aquaria are ideal places for research on husbandry, life cycles, reproduction, behavior, autoecology and fish pathology. Collaboration with Universities and Research Centers increases the research potential in scientific disciplines such as ecology, genetics, physiology and biochemistry. Collaboration also provides mutual benefits in both infrastructure and personnel: The research background in aquaria also forms a sound platform to materialize conservation projects, focusing either on the ex-situ conservation of animals in the aquaria or on environmental protection of surrounding areas and reintroduction of endangered species. In addition to formal educational opportunities, non formal education to visitors, schools and undergraduates seems to become a major mission of aquaria. Aquarium tank displays, preserved biological material, film projections, seminars / lectures and book magazine publications enhance environmental awareness, encouraging people to adopt Environmentally Responsible Behavior. All these missions are feasible because most public aquaria are making a good profit mainly due to their high popularity. There are also benefits for the community in the area; aquaria have enlivened declining water front areas and increased the income of tourist resorts mainly by “stretching out” the tourist season. In the present work the objectives of a public aquarium are reviewed and the main infrastructure subsystems and operational procedures are described; Know how on aquarium systems can also be applied in research laboratories of academic institutions if live organisms have to be kept for experimentation. Aquarium missions on research, conservation and education are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 71-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. A. Davidovich

The absence of a conceptual terminology, sufficiently developed and widely accepted in the Russian literature, significantly hinders progress in the field of reproductive biology of diatoms, restricts communication and debate, prevents training and transfer of knowledge. The present work is an attempt, based on world literature and our own research experience, to summarize, systematize, add, and clarify the existing terms, concepts and definitions related to research which are focused on sex and sexual reproduction in diatoms. A glossary of key terms (more than 200, including synonyms) is provided. Terms refer to diatom reproductive biology, life cycles, fertilization, mating system, gender (including inheritance and determination of sex, as well as inheritance associated with sex). Contradictions between possible interpretations of certain terms are briefly discussed.


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