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

根据性格置换假说，使用相似资源并生活在同一地区的相似物种应该进化出差异，使它们能够共存。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Anolis carolinensis对最近一种近缘物种A.sgrei的入侵做出的特征置换。这两个物种争夺食物和空间，因此研究人员预计，由于它们的地理范围重叠，它们将进化为使用不同的资源。研究人员正在使用一个重复的岛屿实验来验证这一假说，比较了在有萨格雷吸虫的岛屿上的卡罗琳天牛的栖息地使用模式和物理特征，以控制没有萨格雷吸虫的岛屿。这项研究是对自然界中角色置换假说的第一次重复的实验测试，将成为进化的一个明显例子，有助于向公众传授进化原理，并有助于消除自然选择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，研究人员将在流行的科学文章、公共博物馆展品和高中科学课程中描述结果。作为对环境变化快速进化的研究，这项研究将为保护生物学家和政策制定者提供信息，他们正在制定措施，以保护物种和生态系统，以应对日益增长的人口、气候变化、入侵物种和栖息地破坏。

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.