Eco-evolutionary dynamics

达尔文认为，进化的进程非常缓慢，一个多世纪以来，这一观点几乎被普遍接受。然而，最近发生了一个戏剧性的转变，人们开始接受环境变化往往会推动“当代”(或“快速”)进化。随之而来的是对人口、社区和生态系统动态后果进行调查的必要性。这是正在迅速发展的“生态进化动力学”的综合研究领域。到目前为止，我的大部分研究都集中在这些动态中因果关系的一个方向--生态变化如何影响进化(生态到环境)。我还开始探索因果关系的相互箭头：进化变化如何影响生态(Evo-to-ECO)。在接下来的五年里，我的研究将寻求通过对三个模型系统的研究，推动对这两个因果路径及其相互作用的共同理解：不列颠哥伦比亚省的刺鱼、特立尼达的孔雀和加拉帕戈斯的雀类。

Darwin suggested that evolution proceeds very slowly, and this view was almost universally accepted for more than a century. Recently, however, a dramatic shift has taken place toward an acceptance that environmental changes often drive "contemporary" (or "rapid") evolution. With this acceptance has come the need to investigate consequences for the dynamics of populations, communities, and ecosystems. This is the rapidly developing integrated research field of "eco-evolutionary dynamics." Most of my research has thus far focused on one direction of causality in these dynamics - how ecological change influences evolution (eco-to-evo). I have also started to explore the reciprocal arrow of causality: how evolutionary change influences ecology (evo-to-eco). Over the next five years, my research will seek to advance an joint understanding of both causal pathways, and their interactions, through research on three model systems: stickleback in British Columbia, guppies in Trinidad, and finches in Galapagos.