DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Rapid evolution and the character displacement hypothesis: a unique test using a replicated natural colonization experiment

根据特征置换假说，使用相似资源并生活在同一地区的相似物种应该进化出允许它们共存的差异。否则，一个物种将导致另一个物种灭绝。这项研究测试了蜥蜴carolinensis的特征位移，以应对最近入侵的一个密切相关的物种，a . sagrei。这两个物种竞争食物和空间，所以研究人员希望它们进化成使用不同的资源，因为它们的地理范围重叠。研究人员正在使用一个重复的岛屿实验来验证这一假设，他们比较了卡罗来纳沙蚤在有沙草的岛屿和没有沙草的岛屿上的栖息地使用模式和物理特征。这项研究是自然界中第一次对特征置换假说进行重复实验测试，它将作为实际进化的一个清晰例子，有助于向公众传授进化原理，并有助于消除自然选择的进化是一个缓慢过程的流行观念。这项研究考察了小规模进化过程在产生大规模进化模式中可能发挥的作用，研究人员将在通俗科学文章、公共博物馆展览和高中科学课程中描述结果。作为对环境变化的快速进化的研究，这项研究将为保护生物学家和政策制定者提供信息，他们正在制定保护物种和生态系统的措施，以应对人口增长、气候变化、物种入侵和栖息地破坏。

According the character displacement hypothesis, similar species that use similar resources and come to live in the same area should evolve differences that allow them to coexist. Otherwise, one species will drive the other species extinct. This research tests for character displacement in the lizard Anolis carolinensis in response to the recent invasion of a closely related species, A. sagrei. The two species compete for food and space, so the researchers expect them to evolve to use different resources now that their geographic ranges overlap. The researchers are using a replicated island experiment to test this hypothesis, comparing habitat use patterns and physical characteristics of A. carolinensis on islands where A. sagrei is present to control islands where A. sagrei is absent. This research, the first replicated experimental test of the character displacement hypothesis in nature, will serve as a clear example of evolution in action, useful to teach evolutionary principles to the general public and to help dispel the popular notion that evolution by natural selection is a slow process. This research examines the role that small-scale evolutionary processes may play in generating large-scale evolutionary patterns, and the investigators will describe the results in popular scientific articles, public museum exhibits, and high-school science curricula. As a study of rapid evolution in response to environmental change, this research will inform conservation biologists and policy makers who are developing measures to conserve species and ecosystems in the face of an increasing human population, climate change, invasive species, and habitat destruction.