Mechanisms of resilience to environmental change in eco-evolutionary systems

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Rapid environmental change poses major threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services. Response mechanisms to acute or chronic changes in conditions are encoded in a species' genome as variation in gene regulation, DNA methylation, or protein sequences resulting in physiological acclimatization and/or genetic adaptation. The capacity to acclimatize to environmental change has been studied extensively, while the capacity to genetically adapt (evolutionary resilience') has only recently been addressed experimentally, and there are fewer examples still where multiple modes of physiological and genetic responses have been measured simultaneously. Importantly, we have essentially no empirical data showing how these distinct types of responses may impact complex systems in which ecological and evolutionary processes among distinct species affect one another. For example, physiological acclimation accomplished via changes in DNA methylation may be less likely to lead to the long-term persistence of a population than genetic adaptation via changes in protein sequence. These population dynamics can in turn affect other species by altering competitive, predator-prey, or host-parasite interactions, and thereby influence the capacity of biological communities and ecosystems to respond to environmental change and maintain the same structure and function (ecological resilience'). Understanding the connections between these responses at different levels of biological organization requires a framework that considers evolutionary and non-evolutionary mechanisms of resilience at the population level, and the impact of these processes on ecological resilience. To achieve this goal, my research team will use diverse but synthetic approaches including field and lab-based experiments involving genomic, molecular, and biomechanical methods in a variety of organismal groups (lizards, human microbiomes, and fish) appropriate for addressing specific questions. The research will result in the training of high caliber students and PDFs with expertise in ecology, genetics and evolutionary biology, who will publish their research in high-impact journals. The broad training provided by this research program, with its emphasis on both field experiments and also cutting edge molecular tools and genomics, will equip students for employment in university research, government, NGOs, and the business sector in such fields as agriculture and biotechnology, the health sciences, environment, forestry and conservation. Collectively, our research will identify the causal mechanisms of biological resilience to environmental change, and thereby provide key information needed for informed conservation, management, and health policy.