Evolutionary rescue: an emerging focus at the intersection between ecology and evolution

Gonzalez, Andrew; Ronce, Ophélie; Ferrière, Régis; Hochberg, Michael

doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0404

Cited by 326 publications

(338 citation statements)

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“…Several studies address the possibility of species adaptation to global change via evolutionary adaptation (evolutionary rescue [125]) and others model the extinction risk for populations [126,127]. However, how individuals will persist in the face of change is currently unknown.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinction or Survival? Behavioral Flexibility in Response to Environmental Change in the African Striped Mouse Rhabdomys

2013

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Abstract:The rapid rate of anthropogenic-related climate change is expected to severely impact ecosystems and their constituent organisms, leading to mass extinction. A rapid adaptive response of animals to such change could be due to reversible phenotypic flexibility, including behavioral flexibility. Our model, the African striped mouse Rhabdomys, is a small rodent widely distributed in southern Africa. The desert-living species R. pumilio displays social flexibility, whereby individuals switch their social organization in response to prevailing conditions, potentially allowing for persistence in rapidly changing environments. Individuals of the species from the moist grasslands (R. dilectus) show some flexible traits, but opportunities to utilize this potential are apparently not realized. The climate in southern Africa is predicted to become drier, making both desert and grassland species vulnerable to environmental change. Based on realized or potential social flexibility in striped mice, we provide three (not mutually exclusive) scenarios that consider: (i) extinction of the desert species as its habitat changes; (ii) range expansion and utilization of pre-existing adaptations of the desert species to displace the current grassland species; and (iii) grassland species exploiting their potential flexibility (behavioral adaptation) and surviving in their current OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2013, 5 164 habitat. Behavioral flexibility is costly but could allow species to persist in rapidly changing environments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinction or Survival? Behavioral Flexibility in Response to Environmental Change in the African Striped Mouse Rhabdomys

2013

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“…Some authors use genetic rescue to refer only to the reduction in inbreeding depression with outcrossing, excluding adaptive processes (10,17). Our definition above follows the broader sense (6,15).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…"evolutionary rescue" (10,(17)(18)(19)(20)(21). Research on evolutionary rescue initially focused on adaptation to a challenging environment from standing variation (18,21), but, clearly, populations might adapt more quickly if migrants arrive carrying alleles that facilitate adaptation to the degraded habitat (22).…”

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confidence: 99%

Three types of rescue can avert extinction in a changing environment

Hufbauer

Szűcs

Kasyon

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

144

160

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Setting aside high-quality large areas of habitat to protect threatened populations is becoming increasingly difficult as humans fragment and degrade the environment. Biologists and managers therefore must determine the best way to shepherd small populations through the dual challenges of reductions in both the number of individuals and genetic variability. By bringing in additional individuals, threatened populations can be increased in size (demographic rescue) or provided with variation to facilitate adaptation and reduce inbreeding (genetic rescue). The relative strengths of demographic and genetic rescue for reducing extinction and increasing growth of threatened populations are untested, and which type of rescue is effective may vary with population size. Using the flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum) in a microcosm experiment, we disentangled the genetic and demographic components of rescue, and compared them with adaptation from standing genetic variation (evolutionary rescue in the strictest sense) using 244 experimental populations founded at either a smaller (50 individuals) or larger (150 individuals) size. Both types of rescue reduced extinction, and those effects were additive. Over the course of six generations, genetic rescue increased population sizes and intrinsic fitness substantially. Both large and small populations showed evidence of being able to adapt from standing genetic variation. Our results support the practice of genetic rescue in facilitating adaptation and reducing inbreeding depression, and suggest that demographic rescue alone may suffice in larger populations even if only moderately inbred individuals are available for addition.genetic rescue | extinction | migration | evolutionary rescue | adaptation H uman activities, climate change, and habitat loss are putting thousands of species at risk for extinction (1). Traditional conservation approaches that concentrate on improving habitat quality and size are becoming challenging to implement as human populations expand and degrade natural resources at an ever increasing rate. Thus, conservation efforts that are constrained by the availability of habitat may instead need to focus on improving a species' prospect of survival by maintaining sufficient population sizes and supporting the ability of populations to adapt to changing conditions. The most successful approaches are likely to be eco-evolutionary in focus, and thus aim to manipulate evolutionary processes such as inbreeding and the potential for adaptation, to influence ecological dynamics and, ultimately, population persistence.Eco-evolutionary approaches often rely on facilitating movement of individuals among small, threatened populations (2). Brown and Kodric-Brown (3) showed theoretically that immigration in natural systems can save small populations from extinction and referred to this process as the "rescue effect." This phenomenon has since been well documented (4-8), and human-facilitated immigration has been used to rescue populations threatened by degraded habitat o...

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“…In evolutionary rescue, the effects of a drug drive the sensitive population towards extinction, but resistant variants that are already present or emerge during the treatment 'rescue' the population [25]. The evolution of DCA resistance under high drug doses is a textbook example of evolutionary rescue, though not all cases of resistance evolution need involve evolutionary rescue.…”

Section: Rescue and Releasementioning

confidence: 99%

Six wedges to curing disease

Hochberg

2017

Preprint

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Abstract.One of the great challenges in ecology and evolutionary biology is to explain disease, whether caused by infectious agents such as parasites and pathogens, or by the deterioration or transformation of cellular behavior and function, a prime example of the latter being cancer. Decades of observation and research suggest that successfully treating disease requires insights into how the environment mediates the interactions between disease causing agents (DCAs) and diseased individuals. A major finding is that single factor, targeted therapies are not only likely to fail in controlling or eradicating many DCAs, but are also likely to select for resistance, reducing options for subsequent treatment attempts, and in cases of infectious DCAs, rendering therapeutic agents (e.g., antibiotics) obsolete.I argue that meeting the growing challenge of treating disease in agriculture and animal husbandry, in protected and domesticated species, wildlife, and in the human population will require a fundamental understanding of ecological interactions at sites of infection or disease. I discuss different ways in which components of such disease ecosystems mediate DCA and therapeutic dynamics and resistance evolution, and derive a very simple mathematical criterion for therapeutic success. I then touch on how fundamental insights as revealed by the processes of evolutionary rescue and competitive release can help understand why therapies succeed or fail. Finally, I present six "wedges" that can each contribute alone, or as part of multi-pronged approaches to successfully treating disease. The Magic BulletDespite remarkable progress in prevention and treatment, the impacts of diseases in agriculture and animal husbandry, and on protected and domesticated species, wildlife, and human health are likely to intensify into the 21 st century. Humans in particular are increasingly in contact with each other and with wildlife, treated with drug regimens that select for resistance, and adopt life-styles or are exposed to environments that render them more susceptible to infectious diseases and more likely to get cellular diseases such as cancers.For many clinicians the Holy Grail is to discover the Ehrlichian "Magic Bullet"-a drug that will target the disease-causing agents (DCAs) and cure disease. Intuitively, the most effective way to reduce DCAs is to "hit hard and fast". That is, more drug means more kill within the tolerance limits of the patient. Rapid administration of the drug means forestalling further DCA growth and associated symptoms, but also reducing the probability of the appearance of resistant mutant strains. Despite decades of research on pest and disease control (much of it with an ecological basis) this approach and the many alternatives described below remain highly controversial (e.g., [1]).The Magic Bullet may be shortsighted for another reason. What will cure most patients may not be optimal for the general population in which resistant variants may emerge and spread 1 . This problem is in many ways similar...

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Evolutionary rescue: an emerging focus at the intersection between ecology and evolution

Cited by 326 publications

References 56 publications

Extinction or Survival? Behavioral Flexibility in Response to Environmental Change in the African Striped Mouse Rhabdomys

Extinction or Survival? Behavioral Flexibility in Response to Environmental Change in the African Striped Mouse Rhabdomys

Three types of rescue can avert extinction in a changing environment

Six wedges to curing disease

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