Friday, November 11, 2011

Fates Beyond Traits

Many entries on this blog focus on the impacts humans are having on evolutionary processes. The recent description of the impact of human activity on Darwin's finch evolution is one such example. But do human impacts on eco-evolutionary dynamics stop there - on the traits themselves? Or can human-induced trait changes have knock-on effects on ecological processes?

In a recent paper, my coauthors and I explore the evidence that human-induced trait changes in wild populations are impacting ecological processes. We call these ecological consequences "fates beyond traits." We conclude that human-induced trait changes may be impacting ecological processes on a global scale, but that more work is needed to understand the nature of these effects.

Please check out some examples of fates beyond traits on my lab website.

Palkovacs, E.P., M.T. Kinnison, C. Correa, C.M. Dalton & A.P. Hendry. 2011. Fates beyond traits: ecological consequences of human-induced trait change. Evolutionary Applications. Online early. doi:10.1111/j.1752-4571.2011.00212.x

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