Performance-based habitat choice can drive rapid adaptive divergence and reproductive isolation.

Theory predicts that performance-based habitat choice-where individuals select environments based on their local performance-should be widespread in nature and significantly influence ecological and evolutionary processes, including local adaptation, population divergence, reproductive isolation, and speciation. However, experimental evidence supporting these predictions has been largely lacking. In this study, we addressed this by inducing performance-based habitat choice in wild tree sparrows (Passer montanus) through the manipulation of differential access to transponder-operated feeders in two adjacent woodland areas.

The nightjar and the ant: Intercontinental migration reveals a cryptic interaction.

Birds and ants co-occur in most terrestrial ecosystems and engage in a range of interactions. Competition, mutualism and predation are prominent examples of these interactions, but there are possibly many others that remain to be identified and characterized. This study provides quantitative estimates of the frequency of toe amputations resulting from ant bites in a population of migratory red-necked nightjars () monitored for 15 years (2009-2023) in S Spain, and identifies the attacker(s) based on taxonomic analyses of ant-mandible remains found on injured toes.

A generalised approach to the study and understanding of adaptive evolution.

Evolutionary theory has made large impacts on our understanding and management of the world, in part because it has been able to incorporate new data and new insights successfully. Nonetheless, there is currently a tension between certain biological phenomena and mainstream evolutionary theory. For example, how does the inheritance of molecular epigenetic changes fit into mainstream evolutionary theory? Is niche construction an evolutionary process? Is local adaptation via habitat choice also adaptive evolution? These examples suggest there is scope (and perhaps even a need) to broaden our views on evolution.

Selection on individuals of introduced species starts before the actual introduction.

Biological invasion is a global problem with large negative impacts on ecosystems and human societies. When a species is introduced, individuals will first have to pass through the invasion stages of uptake and transport, before actual introduction in a non-native range. Selection is predicted to act during these earliest stages of biological invasion, potentially influencing the invasiveness and/or impact of introduced populations.

Phenotype-dependent habitat choice is too weak to cause assortative mating between Drosophila melanogaster strains differing in light sensitivity.

Matching habitat choice is gaining attention as a mechanism for maintaining biodiversity and driving speciation. It revolves around the idea that individuals select the habitat in which they perceive to obtain greater fitness based on a prior evaluation of their local performance across heterogeneous environments. This results in individuals with similar ecologically relevant traits converging to the same patches, and hence it could indirectly cause assortative mating when mating occurs in those patches.

Experimental evidence that matching habitat choice drives local adaptation in a wild population.

Matching habitat choice is a unique, flexible form of habitat choice based on self-assessment of local performance. This mechanism is thought to play an important role in adaptation and population persistence in variable environments. Nevertheless, the operation of matching habitat choice in natural populations remains to be unequivocally demonstrated.

Biased movement drives local cryptic coloration on distinct urban pavements.

Explanations of how organisms might adapt to urban environments have mostly focused on divergent natural selection and adaptive plasticity. However, differential habitat choice has been suggested as an alternative. Here, we test for habitat choice in enhancing crypsis in ground-perching grasshoppers colonizing an urbanized environment, composed of a mosaic of four distinctly coloured substrates (asphalt roads and adjacent pavements).

Appreciating the Multiple Processes Increasing Individual or Population Fitness.

Natural selection results in adaptation for populations, not individuals. Yet environmental change can reduce the expected fitness of an individual. Selection will favor the evolution of traits that allow individuals to proactively compensate for such reduced fitness.

Resource stability and geographic isolation are associated with genome divergence in western Palearctic crossbills.

While many conifers produce annually variable seed crops, serotinous species (which hold seeds in cones for multiple years) represent unusually stable food resources for seed predators. Such stability is conducive to residency and potentially population divergence of consumers as exemplified by the Cassia crossbill (Loxia sinesciuris) in North America. We used genotyping by sequencing (GBS) to test whether three Mediterranean subspecies of common crossbills (L.

Comparing the consequences of natural selection, adaptive phenotypic plasticity, and matching habitat choice for phenotype-environment matching, population genetic structure, and reproductive isolation in meta-populations.

Organisms commonly experience significant spatiotemporal variation in their environments. In response to such heterogeneity, different mechanisms may act that enhance ecological performance locally. However, depending on the nature of the mechanism involved, the consequences for populations may differ greatly.

Should I Change or Should I Go? Phenotypic Plasticity and Matching Habitat Choice in the Adaptation to Environmental Heterogeneity.

It can be challenging for organisms to achieve a good match between their phenotypic characteristics and environmental requirements that vary in space and time. The evolution of adaptive phenotypes can result from genetic differentiation at the population level. Individuals, however, could also change their phenotype (adaptive plasticity) or select an environment because it matches with their phenotype (matching habitat choice).

Selection on a behaviour-related gene during the first stages of the biological invasion pathway.

Human-induced biological invasions are common worldwide and often have negative impacts on wildlife and human societies. Several studies have shown evidence for selection on invaders after introduction to the new range. However, selective processes already acting prior to introduction have been largely neglected.

Shared genetic diversity across the global invasive range of the monk parakeet suggests a common restricted geographic origin and the possibility of convergent selection.

While genetic diversity is hypothesized to be an important factor explaining invasion success, there is no consensus yet on how variation in source populations or demographic processes affects invasiveness. We used mitochondrial DNA haplotypic and microsatellite genotypic data to investigate levels of genetic variation and reconstruct the history of replicate invasions on three continents in a globally invasive bird, the monk parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus). We evaluated whether genetic diversity at invasive sites could be explained by (i) the native source populations from which they were derived and (ii) demographic bottlenecks during introduction.

Can establishment success be determined through demographic parameters? A case study on five introduced bird species.

The dominant criterion to determine when an introduced species is established relies on the maintenance of a self-sustaining population in the area of introduction, i.e. on the viability of the population from a demographic perspective.

Surfing in tortoises? Empirical signs of genetic structuring owing to range expansion.

Much of our current knowledge about the genetic dynamics in range expansions originates from models, simulations and microcosm experiments that need to be corroborated by field data. Here, we report a neutral genetic pattern that matches the predictions of the genetic surfing theory. Genetic surfing occurs when repeated founding events and genetic drift act on the wave of advance of an expanding population, promoting strong spatial structure.

Comment on "Evolutionary trade-offs, Pareto optimality, and the geometry of phenotype space".

Shoval et al. (Reports, 1 June 2012, p. 1157) showed how configurations of phenotypes may identify tasks that trade off with each other, using randomizations assuming independence of data points.

Dispersal in a changing world: opportunities, insights and challenges.

It has been long recognised that dispersal is an important life-history trait that plays a key role in the demography and evolution of populations and species. This then suggests that dispersal play a central role in the response of populations and species to ever-increasing global change, including climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation, and biological invasions. During a symposium held at Lund University (Sweden), the causes and consequences of dispersal were discussed, and here we provide an overview of the talks.

Non-random gene flow: an underappreciated force in evolution and ecology.

Dispersal is an important life-history trait involved in species persistence, evolution, and diversification, yet is one of the least understood concepts in ecology and evolutionary biology. There is a growing realization that dispersal might not involve the random sample of genotypes as is typically assumed, but instead can be enriched for certain genotypes. Here, we review and compare various sources of such non-random gene flow, and summarize its effects on local adaptation and resource use, metapopulation dynamics, adaptation to climate change, biological invasion, and speciation.

Comparisons between Q(ST) and F(ST) --how wrong have we been?

The comparison between quantitative genetic divergence (Q(ST) ) and neutral genetic divergence (F(ST) ) among populations has become the standard test for historical signatures of selection on quantitative traits. However, when the mutation rate of neutral markers is relatively high in comparison with gene flow, estimates of F(ST) will decrease, resulting in upwardly biased comparisons of Q(ST) vs. F(ST) .

Adaptive speciation theory: a conceptual review.

Speciation-the origin of new species-is the source of the diversity of life. A theory of speciation is essential to link poorly understood macro-evolutionary processes, such as the origin of biodiversity and adaptive radiation, to well understood micro-evolutionary processes, such as allele frequency change due to natural or sexual selection. An important question is whether, and to what extent, the process of speciation is 'adaptive', i.

If F(ST) does not measure neutral genetic differentiation, then comparing it with Q(ST) is misleading. Or is it?

The comparison between neutral genetic differentiation (F(ST) ) and quantitative genetic differentiation (Q(ST) ) is commonly used to test for signatures of selection in population divergence. However, there is an ongoing discussion about what F(ST) actually measures, even resulting in some alternative metrics to express neutral genetic differentiation. If there is a problem with F(ST) , this could have repercussions for its comparison with Q(ST) as well.