Abstract
Under what conditions might organisms be capable of rapid adaptive evolution? We reviewed published studies documenting contemporary adaptations in natural populations and looked for general patterns in the population ecological causes. We found that studies of contemporary adaptation fall into two general settings: (1) colonization of new environments that established newly adapted populations, and (2) local adaptations within the context of a heterogeneous environments and metapopulation structure. Local ecological processes associated with coloniza- tions and introductions included exposure to: (1) a novel host or food resource; (2) a new biophysical environment; (3) a new predator community; and (4) a new coexisting competitor. The new environments that were colon- ized often had depauperate communities, sometimes because of anthropogenic disturbance. Local adaptation in heterogeneous environments was also often associated with recent anthropogenic changes, such as insecticide and herbicide resistance, or industrial melanism. A common feature of many examples is the combination of directional selection with at least a short-term opportunity for population growth. We suggest that such opportunities for population growth may be a key factor that promotes rapid evolution, since directional selection might otherwise be expected to cause population decline and create the potential for local extinction, which is an ever-present alternative to local adaptation. We also address the large discrepancy between the rate of evolution observed in contemporary studies and the apparent rate of evolution seen in the fossil record.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Key words
References
Able, K.P. & J.R. Belthoff, 1998. Rapid evolution of migratory behavior in the introduced house finch of eastern North America. Proc. Royal Soc. London, Series B.
Antonovics, J., A.D. Bradshaw & R.G. Turner, 1971. Heavy metal tolerance in plants. Adv. Ecol. Res. 7: 1–85.
Baker, A.J., 1980. Morphometric differentiation in New Zealand populations of the house sparrow. Evolution 34: 638–653.
Barton, N. & L. Partridge, 2000. Limits to natural selection. BioEssays 22: 1075–1084.
Bell, M.A., J.V. Baumgartner & E.C. Olson. 1985. Patterns of temporal change in single morphological characters of a Miocene stickleback fish. Paleobiology 11: 258–271.
Berry, R.J., 1964. The evolution of an island population of the house mouse. Evolution 18: 468–483.
Berthold, P., A.J. Helbig, G. Mohr & U. Querner, 1992. Rapid microevolution of migratory behaviour in a wild bird species. Nature 360: 668–670.
Bookstein, F.L., P.D. Gingerich & A.G. Kluge. 1978. Hierarchical linear modeling of the tempo and mode of evolution. Paleobiology 4: 120–134.
Bradshaw, A.D., 1984. The importance of evolutionary ideas in ecology-and vice versa, pp. 1–26 in Evolutionary Ecology, edited by B. Shorrocks. Blackwell, Oxford.
Burger, R. & M. Lynch, 1995. Evolution and extinction in a changing environment: a quantitative-genetic analysis. Evolution 49: 151–163.
Byrne, K. & R.A. Nichols, 1999. Culex pipiens in London underground tunnels: differentiation between surface and subterranean populations. Heredity 82: 7–15.
Carroll, S.B. & C. Boyd, 1992. Host race radiation in the soapberry bug: natural history with the history. Evolution 46: 1052–1069.
Carroll, S.P., H. Dingle & S.P. Klassen, 1997. Genetic differentiation of fitness-associated traits among rapidly evolving populations of the soapberry bug. Evolution 51:1182–1188.
Carroll, S.P., S.P. Klassen & H. Dingle, 1998. Rapidly evolving adaptations to host ecology and nutrition in the soapberry bug. Evol. Ecol. 12: 955–968.
Charlesworth, B., 1984a. The cost of phenotypic evolution. Paleobiology 10:319–327.
Charlesworth, B., 1984b. Some quantitative methods for studying evolutionary patterns in single characters. Paleobiology 10: 308–318.
Conant, S., 1988. Geographic variation in the Laysan finch. Evol. Ecol. 2: 270–282.
Cruz, A. & J.W. Wiley, 1989. The decline of an adaptation in the absence of a presumed selection pressure. Evolution 43: 55–62.
Damgaard, C., 1996. The rate of evolution in growing populations. Trends Ecol. Evol. 11: 107–108.
Darwin, C., 1859. The Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection. John Murray, London.
Diamond, J., S.L. Pimm, M.E. Gilpin & M. LeCroy, 1989. Rapid evolution of character displacement in Myzomelid honeyeaters. Am. Natural. 134:675–708.
Egerton-Warburton. L.M. & B.J. Griffin, 1995. Differential responses of Pisolithus tinctorius isolates to aluminum in vitro. Canad. J. Bot. 73: 1229–1233.
Egerton-Warburton. L.M., J. Juo, B.J. Griffin & B.B. Lamont, 1993. The effect of aluminum on the distribution of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus in mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal seedlings of Eucalyptus rudis: a croy-microanalytical study. Plant Soil 155/156: 481–484.
Eisenberg, J.F., 1981. The Mammalian Radiations. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Endler, J.A., 1980. Natural selection on color patterns in Poecilia reticulata. Evolution 34: 76–91.
Endler, J.A., 1986. Natural Selection in the Wild. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Endler, J.A., 1995. Multiple-trait coevolution and environmental gradients in guppies. TREE 10: 22–29.
Fenchel, T., 1975. Character displacement and coexistence in mud snails. Oecologia 20: 19–32.
Filchak, K.E., J.B. Roethele & J.L. Feder, 2000. Natural selection and sympatric divergence in the apple maggot Rhagoletis pomonella. Nature 407: 739–742.
Flessa, K.W., A. H. Cutler & K.H. Meldahl, 1993. Time-averaging and taphonomy: quantitative estimates of time-averaging and stratigraphic disorder in a shallow marine habitat. Paleobiology 19: 266–296.
Fox, J.A., M.F. Dybdahl, J. Jokela & C.M. Lively, 1996. Genetic structure of coexisting sexual and clonal subpopulations in a freshwater snail (Potamopyrgus antipodarum). Evolution 50: 1541–1548.
Gibbs, H.L. & P.R. Grant, 1987. Oscillating selection on Darwin’s finches. Nature 327: 511–513.
Gingerich, P.D., 1983. Rates of evolution: effects of time and temporal scaling. Science 222: 159–161.
Gomulkiewicz, R. & R.D. Holt, 1995. When does evolution by natural selection prevent extinction? Evolution 49: 201–207.
Gould, S.J., 1980. Is a new and general theory of evolution developing? Paleobiology 6: 199–130.
Gould, S.J. & N. Eldredge, 1977. Punctuated equilibria: the tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered. Paleobiology 3: 115–151.
Gould, S.J. & N. Eldredge, 1993. Punctuated equilibrium comes of age. Nature 366: 223–227.
Grant, PR, 1993. Hybridization of Darwin’s finches on Isla Daphne Major, Galapagos. Philos. Trans. Royal Soc. London, Series B 340: 127–139.
Grant, P.R. & B.R. Grant, 1992. Hybridization of bird species. Science 256: 193–197.
Grant, P.R. & B.R. Grant, 1995. Predicting microevolutionary responses to directional selection on heritable variation. Evolution 49:241–251.
Groman, J.D. & O. Pellmyr, 2000. Rapid evolution and specialization following host colonization in a yucca moth. J. Evol. Biol. 13: 223–236.
Guillemaud, T., T. Lenormand, D. Gourguet, C. Chevillon, N. Pasteur & M. Raymond, 1998. Evolution of resistance in Culex pipiens: allele replacement and changing environment. Evolution 52: 443–453.
Hairston, N.G., Jr. & W.E. Walton, 1986. Rapid evolution of a life history trait. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 83: 4831–4833.
Haidane, J.B.S., 1949. Suggestions as to quantitative measurement of rates of evolution. Evolution 3: 51–56.
Haidane. J.B.S., 1956. The theory of selection for melanism in Lepidoptera. Proc. Royal Soc. London, Series B 145: 303–306.
Haidane, J.B.S.. 1957. The cost of natural selection. J. Genet. 55: 511–524.
Hanski, I., Nature (London) Nov. 5, and Abstract, 1998. Metapopu-lation dynamics. Nature 396: 41–49.
Hatfield. T. & D. Schluter. 1999. Ecological speciation in sticklebacks: Environment-dependent hybrid fitness. Evolution 53: 866–873.
Hendry, A.P., J.E. Hensleigh & R.R. Reisenbichler, 1998. Incubation temperature, developmental biology, and the divergence of sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) within Lake Washington. Canad. J. Fisher. Aquat. Sci. 55: 1387–1394.
Hendry, A.P. & M.T. Kinnison, 1999. The pace of modem life: measuring rates of contemporary microevolution. Evolution 53: 1637–1653.
Hill, J.K., C.D. Thomas & D.S. Blakeley, 1999. Evolution of flight morphology in a butterfly that has recently expanded its geographic range. Oecologia 121: 165–170.
Holland, W.E., M.H. Smith, J.W. Gibbons & D.H. Brown, 1974. Thermal tolerances of fish from a reservoir receiving heated effluent from a nuclear reactor. Physiol. Zool. 47: 110–118.
Huey, R.B., G.W. Gilchrist, M.L. Carlson, D. Berrigan & L. Serra, 2000. Rapid evolution of a geographic cline in size in an introduced fly. Science 287: 308–309.
James, A.C. & L. Partridge, 1995. Thermal evolution of rate of larval development in Drosophila melanogaster in laboratory and field populations. J. Evol. Biol. 8: 315–330.
Jasieniuk, M. & B.D. Maxwell, 1994. Population genetics and the evolution of herbicide resistance in weeds. Phytoprotection 75 (suppl.): 25–35.
Johnston, R.F. & R.K. Selander, 1964. House sparrows: rapid evolution of races in North America. Science 144: 548–550.
Johnston, R.F. & R.K. Selander, 1971. Evolution in the house sparrow. II. Adaptive differentiation in North American populations. Evolution 25: 1–28.
Kettlewell, B., 1973. The Evolution of Melanism: The Study of a Recurring Necessity. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Klerks, P.L. & J.S. Weis, 1987. Genetic adaptation to heavy metals in aquatic organisms: a review. Environ. Pollut. 45: 173–205.
Klerks, P.L., 1989. Rapid evolution of metal resistance in a benthic oligochaete inhabiting a metal polluted site. Biol. Bull. 176: 135–141.
Lande, R., 1976. Natural selection and random genetic drift in phenotypic evolution. Evolution 30: 314–334.
Lande, R., 1998. Anthropogenic, ecological and genetic factors in extinction and conservation. Res. Popul. Ecol. (Kyoto) 40: 259–269.
Lande, R. & S. Shannon. 1996. The role of genetic variation in adaptation and population persistence in a changing environment. Evolution 50: 434–437.
Lee, C.E., 1999. Rapid and repeated invasions of fresh water by the copepod Eurytemora affinis. Evolution 53: 1423–1434.
Lefehvre, C. & C. Vernet. 1991. Microevolutionary process on contaminated depositis, pp. 286–299 in Heavy Metal Tolerance in Plants: Evolutionary Aspects, edited by A.J. Shaw. CRC Press, Boca Raton, F.L.
Losos, J.B. & D. Schluter, 2000. Analysis of an evolutionary species-area relationship. Nature 408: 847–850.
Lynch, M., 1990. The rate of morphological evolution in mammals from the standpoint of the neutral expectation. Am. Natural. 136: 727–741.
Lynch, M. & R. Lande, 1993. Evolution and extinction in response to environmental change, pp. 234–250 in Biotic Interactions and Global Climate Change, edited by J.G.K.P.M. Kareiva & R.B. Huey. Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass.
MacArthur, R.H., and E.O. Wilson, 1967. The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
MacNair, M.R., 1987. Heavy metal tolerance in plants: a model evolutionary system. Trends Ecol. Evol. 12.
Macnair, M.R., 1991a. The genetics of metal tolerance in natural populations, pp. 236–253 in Heavy Metal Tolerance in Plants: Evolutionary Aspects, edited by A.J. Shaw. CRC Press, Boca Raton, F.L.
Macnair, M.R., 1991b. Why the evolution of resistance to antrhopo-genic toxins normally involves major gene changes: the limits to natural selection. Genetica 84: 213–219.
Magurran, A.E., B.H. Seghers, G.R. Carvalho & P.W. Shaw, 1992. Behavioral consequences of an artificial introduction of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) in Trinidad-evidence for the evolution of anti-predator behavior in the wild. Proc. Royal Soc. London, Series B 248: 117–122.
Majerus, M.E.N., 1998. Melanism: Evolution in Action. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
Mallet, J. 1989. The evolution of insecticide resistence: have the insects won? Trends Ecol. Evol. 4: 336–340.
McLain, D.K., M.P. Moulton & J.G. Sanderson, 1999. Sexual selection and extinction: the fat of plumage-dimorphic and plumage monomorphic birds introduced onto islands. Evol. Ecol. Res. 1: 549–565.
Orr, H.A., 1998. The population genetics of adaptation: the distribution of factors fixed during adaptive evolution. Evolution 52: 935–949.
Orr, H.A., 2000. Adaptation and the cost of complexity. Evolution 54: 13–20.
Powell, J.R., 1997. Progress and Prospects in Evolutionary Biology: The Drosophila Model. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Quinn, T.P. & D.J. Adams. 1996. Environmental changes affecting the migratory timing of American shad and sockeye salmon. Ecology 77: 1151–1162.
Reznick, D.A.. H. Bryga & J.A. Endler. 1990. Experimentally induced life-history evolution in a natural population. Nature 346: 357–359.
Reznick, D.N., 1982. The impact of predation on life history evolution in Trinidadian guppies: the genetic components of observed life history differences. Evolution 36: 1236–1250.
Reznick, D.N., 1989. Life history evolution in guppies. 2. Repeatability of field observations and the effects of season on life histories. Evolution 43: 1285–1297.
Reznick, D.N. & H. Bryga, 1987. Life-history evolution in guppies. 1. Phenotypic and genotypic changes in an introduction experiment. Evolution 41: 1370–1385.
Reznick, D.N. & H. Bryga, 1996. Life-history evolution in guppies (Poecilia reticulata: Poeciliidae). V. Genetic basis of parallelism in life histories. Am. Natural. 147: 339–359.
Reznick, D.N. & J.A. Endler, 1982. The impact of predation on life history evolution in Trindadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Evolution 36: 160–177.
Reznick, D.N., F.H. Rodd & M. Cardenas, 1996. Life-history evolution in guppies (Poecilia reticulata: Poeciliidae). IV. Parallelism in life-history phenotypes. Am. Natural. 147: 319–338.
Reznick, D.N., F.H. Rodd & L. Nunney, 2001. Empirical evidence for rapid evolution, in Evolutionary Conservation Biology, edited by C.D., D.U. & F.R. Cambridge University Press.
Reznick, D.N., F.H. Shaw, F.H. Rodd & R.G. Shaw, 1997. Evaluation of the rate of evolution in natural populations of guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Science 275: 1934–1937.
Rosenheim, J.A., M.W. Johnson, R.F.L. Mau, S.C. Welter & others, 1996. Biochemical preadaptations, founder events, and the evolution of resistance in arthropods. J. Econ. Entomol. 89: 263–273.
Schluter, D., 1994. Experimental evidence that competition promotes divergence in adaptive radiation. Science 266: 798–801.
Schluter, D., 1995. Adaptive radiation in sticklebacks: trade-offs in feeding performance and growth. Ecology 76: 82–90.
Schluter, D., 1996. Ecological causes of adaptive radiation. Am. Natural. 148: s40–s64.
Schluter, D., 1998. Ecological causes of speciation, pp. 114–129 in Endless Forms: Species and Speciation, edited by D.J. Howard & S.H. Berlocher. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Seeley, R.H., 1986. Intense natural selection caused a rapid morphological transistion in a living marine snail. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 83:6897–6901.
Simpson, G.G., 1944. Tempo and Mode in Evolution. Colombia University Press, New York.
Sinervo, B. & C.M. Lively, 1996. The rock-paper-scissors game and the evolution of alternative male strategies. Nature 380:240–243.
Sinervo, B., E. Svensson, T. Comendant, 2000. Density cycles and an offspring quantity and quality game driven by natural selection. Nature 406: 985–988.
Singer, M.C., C.D. Thomas & C. Parmesan, 1993. Rapid human-induced evolution of insect-host associations. Nature 366: 681–683.
Smith, T.B., L.A. Freed, J.K. Lepson & J.H. Carothers, 1995. Evolutionary consequences of extinctions in populations of a Hawaiian honeycreeper. Conserv. Biol. 9: 107–113.
Stearns, S.C., 1983a. The genetic basis of differences in life history traits among six populations of mosquitofish that shared ancestors in 1905. Evolution 37: 618–627.
Stearns, S.C., 1983b. A natural experiment in life history evolution: field data on the introduction of mosquitofish to Hawaii. Evolution 37: 601–617.
Taylor, G.E., L.F. Pitelka & M.T. Clegg. 1991. Ecological Genetics and Air Pollution. Springer Verlag. New York.
Thompson, J. N., 1998. Rapid evolution as an ecological process. Trends Ecol. Evol. 13: 329–332.
Till-Bottraud, I., L. Wu & J. Harding, 1990. Rapid evolution of life history traits in populations of Poa annua L. J. Evol. Biol. 3: 205–224.
Vamosi, S. M., T. Hatfield & D. Schluter, 2000. A test of ecological selection against young-of-the-year hybrids of sympatric sticklebacks. J. Fish Biol. 57: 109–121.
Via, S., A.C. Bouck & S. Skillman, 2000. Reproductive isolation between divergent races of pea aphids on two hosts. II. Selection against migrants and hybrids in the parental environments. Evolution 54: 1626–1637.
Vila, C., P. Savolainen, J.E. Maldonado, I.R. Amorim, J.E. Rice, R.L. Honeycutt, K.A. Crandall, J. Lundeberg & R.K. Wayne, 1997. Multiple and ancient origins of the domestic dog. Science 267: 1687–1689.
Weber, E. & B. Schmid. 1998. Latitudinal population differentiation in two species of Solidago (Asteraceae) introduced into Europe. Am. J. Bot. 85: 1110–1121.
Williams, C.K. & R.J. Moore, 1989a. Genetic divergence in fecundity of Australian wild rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus. J. Anim. Ecol. 58.
Williams, C.K. & R.J. Moore, 1989b. Phenotypic adaptation and natural selection in the wild rabbit, Otyctolagus cuniculus, in Australia. J. Anim. Ecol. 58: 495–507.
Wilson, E.O., 1965. The challenge from related species, pp. 7–24 in The Genetics of Colonizing Species, edited by H.G. Baker & G.L. Stebbins. Academic Press. New York, N.Y.
Wu. L., 1991. Colonization and establishment of plants in contaminated sites, pp. 270–284 in Heavy Metal Tolerance in Plants: Evolutionary Aspects, edited by A.J. Shaw. CRC Press, Boca Raton, F.L.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Reznick, D.N., Ghalambor, C.K. (2001). The population ecology of contemporary adaptations: What empirical studies reveal about the conditions that promote adaptive evolution. In: Hendry, A.P., Kinnison, M.T. (eds) Microevolution Rate, Pattern, Process. Contemporary Issues in Genetics and Evolution, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0585-2_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0585-2_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-3889-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0585-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive