Why evolutionary biologists should get seriously involved in ecological monitoring and applied biodiversity assessment programs.

Jakob Brodersen,Ole Seehausen

doi:10.1111/eva.12215

Abstract

While ecological monitoring and biodiversity assessment programs are widely implemented and relatively well developed to survey and monitor the structure and dynamics of populations and communities in many ecosystems, quantitative assessment and monitoring of genetic and phenotypic diversity that is important to understand evolutionary dynamics is only rarely integrated. As a consequence, monitoring programs often fail to detect changes in these key components of biodiversity until after major loss of diversity has occurred. The extensive efforts in ecological monitoring have generated large data sets of unique value to macro-scale and long-term ecological research, but the insights gained from such data sets could be multiplied by the inclusion of evolutionary biological approaches. We argue that the lack of process-based evolutionary thinking in ecological monitoring means a significant loss of opportunity for research and conservation. Assessment of genetic and phenotypic variation within and between species needs to be fully integrated to safeguard biodiversity and the ecological and evolutionary dynamics in natural ecosystems. We illustrate our case with examples from fishes and conclude with examples of ongoing monitoring programs and provide suggestions on how to improve future quantitative diversity surveys.

Highlights

Biodiversity assessment, monitoring, and research The realization of the necessity to integrate past and present ecological processes across multiple spatial scales (Ricklefs and Schluter 1993) has transformed community ecology and has become central for the design of many ecosystem assessment, monitoring, and management programs (Swetnam et al 1999)
Despite the increasing realization that evolution happens at the same time scales (Hendry and Kinnison 1999; Hendry et al 2007), no such productive interactions have developed between ecosystem monitoring and evolutionary biology
We aim to promote the integration of evolutionary biology thinking into existing ecological monitoring and applied biodiversity assessment programs

Summary

Introduction

Biodiversity assessment, monitoring, and research The realization of the necessity to integrate past and present ecological processes across multiple spatial scales (Ricklefs and Schluter 1993) has transformed community ecology and has become central for the design of many ecosystem assessment, monitoring, and management programs (Swetnam et al 1999). This way fisheries management practice and environmental change often lead to the collapse of previously differentiated stocks and species (e.g., Todd and Stedman 1989; Lancaster et al 2006), a process referred to as ‘speciation reversal’ (Seehausen et al 2008) Such human-induced changes in the diversity and distribution of populations that differ in their adaptations, and may be reproductively isolated incipient species, are cases of evolution on ecological time scales when observed at local spatial scale and loss of biodiversity when observed at global scale, that may have consequences for ecosystem dynamics, structure, and services (Worm et al 2006; Heino and Dieckmann 2009; Palkovacs et al 2012). We think the only way to achieve this goal in the long term is by re-invigorating the training in field taxonomy in the ecology and evolution curricula

Concluding remarks

Literature cited