Eco-evolutionary dynamics of communities in changing environments

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The current pace of environmental change poses serious challenges to species. Human-induced environmental changes include increase of greenhouse gases such as CO2, rising temperature, increasing runoff of fertilizers from agricultural fields and the introduction of invasive species. Although the environment has always been changing and species have always been turning over on geological time scales, there is a concrete danger that the current pace of change and the multitude of factors involved are threatening the persistence of species and ecological communities. The goal of my research program is to understand whether and how the species in natural ecosystems can cope with this cocktail of changing factors. Of particular interest is the question whether evolution can happen fast enough so that threatened species can adapt to the new conditions and be rescued from extinction. I combine experimental and theoretical approaches and study the ecological and evolutionary responses to the changing environment in three different systems: a lake system in which plankton is challenged with the simultaneous changes of CO2, temperature, acidity and major nutrients; a fish-based system where the fish need to cope with and adapt to parasites; and a mathematical model system that simulates the behaviour of complex ecosystems. All systems have the same goal to evaluate how ecology and evolution contribute to adaptation of organisms to the changing environment; but they produce insights at different levels. The lake system will inform about the response of plankton organisms, which - through photosynthesis - produce half of the global primary biomass. The fish-parasite system is designed to provide general insights into the spread of diseases and how evolved resistance can help impede their spread. The mathematical model system will help us to recognize ecological communities that are threatened by environmental change and to assess whether evolutionary adaptation may rescue them. From a fundamental science point of view, the research will advance our knowledge and understanding of ecological and evolutionary dynamics in complex communities. But the research is also of applied value to Canadians and the global human population because it will allow us to make predictions about the impact of human-induced environmental change on the Earth's biota, including humans themselves.