Water Beetles as Models in Ecology and Evolution

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 359-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
David T. Bilton ◽  
Ignacio Ribera ◽  
Andrew Edward Z. Short
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Conservation Biology ◽  
Model System ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Aquatic Habitats ◽  
Water Beetles ◽  
Dna Taxonomy ◽  
Evolutionary Radiations ◽  
Insect Group ◽  
Ecological Range

Beetles have colonized water many times during their history, with some of these events involving extensive evolutionary radiations and multiple transitions between land and water. With over 13,000 described species, they are one of the most diverse macroinvertebrate groups in most nonmarine aquatic habitats and occur on all continents except Antarctica. A combination of wide geographical and ecological range and relatively accessible taxonomy makes these insects an excellent model system for addressing a variety of questions in ecology and evolution. Work on water beetles has recently made important contributions to fields as diverse as DNA taxonomy, macroecology, historical biogeography, sexual selection, and conservation biology, as well as predicting organismal responses to global change. Aquatic beetles have some of the best resolved phylogenies of any comparably diverse insect group, and this, coupled with recent advances in taxonomic and ecological knowledge, is likely to drive an expansion of studies in the future.

Status, Distribution, and Conservation of Native Freshwater Fishes of Western North America

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Biology ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Common Species ◽  
Model System ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Evolutionary Processes ◽  
Widespread Species ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Management Priorities ◽  
Conservation And Management

ABSTRACT The fundamental charge of conservation biology is to preserve biological diversity. Yet, efforts to accomplish this goal have focused too narrowly on reversing the slide toward extinction in already threatened or endangered species. In this review, we argue that conservation biologists and fisheries managers should broaden their vision to include efforts to preserve the ecological and evolutionary processes that ultimately give rise to new biodiversity. Our view is based upon the simple observation that biological diversity is a function of both the rate at which new taxa originate as well as the rate at which established taxa are lost to extinction. Efforts to stem extinction that fail to maintain the ecological and evolutionary processes of speciation are ultimately unsustainable. We suggest that common, widespread species are particularly important to the origin of new diversity and argue that conservation biologists should pay particular attention to the evolution of diversity within such species. We illustrate several key points to this argument using the desert minnow, Utah chub <em>Gila atraria</em>, as a model system. In particular, we show that conservation efforts in common species must focus on clearly delineating conservation unit boundaries and that particular care should be paid to unique ecological and evolutionary diversity within such species.We also show the importance of understanding and conserving the range of ecological and evolutionary interactions that are common hallmarks of abundant and widespread taxa.We conclude our review by suggesting several specific areas of future research in Utah chub that would help more clearly define conservation and management priorities in this species.

scholarly journals The evolution of parental cooperation in birds

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (44) ◽  
pp. 13603-13608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimír Remeš ◽  
Robert P. Freckleton ◽  
Jácint Tökölyi ◽  
András Liker ◽  
Tamás Székely
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Model System ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Species Ranges ◽  
Parental Strategies ◽  
Life History Variables

Parental care is one of the most variable social behaviors and it is an excellent model system to understand cooperation between unrelated individuals. Three major hypotheses have been proposed to explain the extent of parental cooperation: sexual selection, social environment, and environmental harshness. Using the most comprehensive dataset on parental care that includes 659 bird species from 113 families covering both uniparental and biparental taxa, we show that the degree of parental cooperation is associated with both sexual selection and social environment. Consistent with recent theoretical models parental cooperation decreases with the intensity of sexual selection and with skewed adult sex ratios. These effects are additive and robust to the influence of life-history variables. However, parental cooperation is unrelated to environmental factors (measured at the scale of whole species ranges) as indicated by a lack of consistent relationship with ambient temperature, rainfall or their fluctuations within and between years. These results highlight the significance of social effects for parental cooperation and suggest that several parental strategies may coexist in a given set of ambient environment.

scholarly journals Assessing sexual conflict in the Drosophila melanogaster laboratory model system

2006 ◽  
Vol 361 (1466) ◽  
pp. 287-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R Rice ◽  
Andrew D Stewart ◽  
Edward H Morrow ◽  
Jodell E Linder ◽  
Nicole Orteiza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Graphical Model ◽  
Direct Costs ◽  
Model System ◽  
Laboratory Model ◽  
Laboratory Populations ◽  
Spatial Refuge ◽  
Sexually Antagonistic Coevolution

We describe a graphical model of interlocus coevolution used to distinguish between the interlocus sexual conflict that leads to sexually antagonistic coevolution, and the intrinsic conflict over mating rate that is an integral part of traditional models of sexual selection. We next distinguish the ‘laboratory island’ approach from the study of both inbred lines and laboratory populations that are newly derived from nature, discuss why we consider it to be one of the most fitting forms of laboratory analysis to study interlocus sexual conflict, and then describe four experiments using this approach with Drosophila melanogaster . The first experiment evaluates the efficacy of the laboratory model system to study interlocus sexual conflict by comparing remating rates of females when they are, or are not, provided with a spatial refuge from persistent male courtship. The second experiment tests for a lag-load in males that is due to adaptations that have accumulated in females, which diminish male-induced harm while simultaneously interfering with a male's ability to compete in the context of sexual selection. The third and fourth experiments test for a lag-load in females owing to direct costs from their interactions with males, and for the capacity for indirect benefits to compensate for these direct costs.

scholarly journals An expressed sequence tag (EST) library for Drosophila serrata, a model system for sexual selection and climatic adaptation studies

BMC Genomics ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca D Frentiu ◽  
Marcin Adamski ◽  
Elizabeth A McGraw ◽  
Mark W Blows ◽  
Stephen F Chenoweth
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Expressed Sequence Tag ◽  
Model System ◽  
Adaptation Studies ◽  
Climatic Adaptation ◽  
Est Library ◽  
Drosophila Serrata ◽  
Expressed Sequence

scholarly journals Model systems to elucidate minimum requirements for protected areas networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda F. Wiersma ◽  
R. Troy McMullin ◽  
Darren J. H. Sleep
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Biology ◽  
Simulation Models ◽  
Model System ◽  
Model Systems ◽  
Gamma Diversity ◽  
Birch Trees ◽  
Minimum Number ◽  
Minimum Requirements ◽  
Support Software ◽  
Novel Model

AbstractIn conservation biology there have been varying answers to the question of “How much land to protect?” Simulation models using decision-support software such as Marxan show that the answer is sensitive to target type and amount, and issues of scale. We used a novel model system for landscape ecology to test empirically whether the minimum conservation requirements to represent all species at least once are consistent across replicate landscapes, and if not, whether these minimum conservation requirements are linked to biodiversity patterns. Our model system of replicated microcosms could be scaled to larger systems once patterns and mechanisms are better understood. We found that the minimum representation requirements for lichen species along the microlandscapes of tree trunks were remarkably consistent (4–6 planning units) across 24 balsam fir trees in a single stand, as well as for 21 more widely dispersed fir and yellow birch trees. Variation in minimum number of planning units required correlated positively with gamma diversity. Our results demonstrate that model landscapes are useful to determine whether minimum representation requirements are consistent across different landscapes, as well as what factors (life history, diversity patterns, dispersal strategies) affect variation in these conservation requirements. This system holds promise for further investigation into factors that should be considered when developing conservation designs, thus yielding scientifically-defensible requirements that can be applied more broadly.

scholarly journals Sexual selection, body mass and molecular evolution interact to predict diversification in birds

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1899) ◽  
pp. 20190172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maider Iglesias-Carrasco ◽  
Michael D. Jennions ◽  
Simon Y. W. Ho ◽  
David A. Duchêne
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Molecular Evolution ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Genome Data ◽  
Rate Of Molecular Evolution ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Evolutionary Radiations ◽  
Selection For ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Lineage Diversification

Sexual selection is a powerful agent of evolution, driving microevolutionary changes in the genome and macroevolutionary rates of lineage diversification. The mechanisms by which sexual selection might influence macroevolution remain poorly understood. For example, sexual selection might drive positive selection for key adaptations that facilitate diversification. Furthermore, sexual selection might be a general driver of molecular evolutionary rate. We lay out some of the potential mechanisms that create a link between sexual selection and diversification, based on causal effects on other life-history traits such as body mass and the rate of molecular evolution. Birds are ideally suited for testing the importance of these relationships because of their diverse reproductive systems and the multiple evolutionary radiations that have produced their astounding modern diversity. We show that sexual selection (measured as the degree of polygyny) interacts with the rate of molecular evolution and with body mass to predict species richness at the genus level. A high degree of polygyny and rapid molecular evolution are positively associated with the net rate of diversification, with the two factors being especially important for explaining diversification in large-bodied taxa. Our findings further suggest that mutation rates underpin some of the macroevolutionary effects of sexual selection. We synthesize the existing theory on sexual selection as a force for diversity and propose avenues for exploring this association using genome data.

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