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De Meester L, Vázquez-Domínguez E, Kassen R, Forest F, Bellon MR, Koskella B, Scherson RA, Colli L, Hendry AP, Crandall KA, Faith DP, Starger CJ, Geeta R, Araki H, Dulloo EM, Souffreau C, Schroer S, Johnson MTJ. A link between evolution and society fostering the UN sustainable development goals. Evol Appl 2024; 17:e13728. [PMID: 38884021 PMCID: PMC11178947 DOI: 10.1111/eva.13728] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2023] [Revised: 05/16/2024] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 06/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Given the multitude of challenges Earth is facing, sustainability science is of key importance to our continued existence. Evolution is the fundamental biological process underlying the origin of all biodiversity. This phylogenetic diversity fosters the resilience of ecosystems to environmental change, and provides numerous resources to society, and options for the future. Genetic diversity within species is also key to the ability of populations to evolve and adapt to environmental change. Yet, the value of evolutionary processes and the consequences of their impairment have not generally been considered in sustainability research. We argue that biological evolution is important for sustainability and that the concepts, theory, data, and methodological approaches used in evolutionary biology can, in crucial ways, contribute to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We discuss how evolutionary principles are relevant to understanding, maintaining, and improving Nature Contributions to People (NCP) and how they contribute to the SDGs. We highlight specific applications of evolution, evolutionary theory, and evolutionary biology's diverse toolbox, grouped into four major routes through which evolution and evolutionary insights can impact sustainability. We argue that information on both within-species evolutionary potential and among-species phylogenetic diversity is necessary to predict population, community, and ecosystem responses to global change and to make informed decisions on sustainable production, health, and well-being. We provide examples of how evolutionary insights and the tools developed by evolutionary biology can not only inspire and enhance progress on the trajectory to sustainability, but also highlight some obstacles that hitherto seem to have impeded an efficient uptake of evolutionary insights in sustainability research and actions to sustain SDGs. We call for enhanced collaboration between sustainability science and evolutionary biology to understand how integrating these disciplines can help achieve the sustainable future envisioned by the UN SDGs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luc De Meester
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) Berlin Germany
- Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation KU Leuven Leuven Belgium
- Institute of Biology Freie University Berlin Berlin Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB) Berlin Germany
| | - Ella Vázquez-Domínguez
- Departamento de Ecología de la Biodiversidad, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Ciudad Universitaria Ciudad de México Mexico
- Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics Group Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC) Sevilla Spain
| | - Rees Kassen
- Department of Biology McGill University Montreal Quebec Canada
| | | | - Mauricio R Bellon
- Comisión Nacional Para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (CONABIO) México City Mexico
- Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems Arizona State University Tempe Arizona USA
| | - Britt Koskella
- Department of Integrative Biology University of California Berkeley California USA
| | - Rosa A Scherson
- Laboratorio Evolución y Sistemática, Departamento de Silvicultura y Conservación de la Naturaleza Universidad de Chile Santiago Chile
| | - Licia Colli
- Dipartimento di Scienze Animali, Della Nutrizione e Degli Alimenti, BioDNA Centro di Ricerca Sulla Biodiversità e Sul DNA Antico, Facoltà di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Ambientali Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Piacenza Italy
| | - Andrew P Hendry
- Redpath Museum & Department of Biology McGill University Montreal Quebec Canada
| | - Keith A Crandall
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics George Washington University Washington DC USA
- Department of Invertebrate Zoology, US National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution Washington DC USA
| | | | - Craig J Starger
- School of Global Environmental Sustainability Colorado State University Fort Collins Colorado USA
| | - R Geeta
- Department of Botany University of Delhi New Delhi India
| | - Hitoshi Araki
- Research Faculty of Agriculture Hokkaido University Sapporo Japan
| | - Ehsan M Dulloo
- Effective Genetic Resources Conservation and Use Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT Rome Italy
| | - Caroline Souffreau
- Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation KU Leuven Leuven Belgium
| | - Sibylle Schroer
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) Berlin Germany
| | - Marc T J Johnson
- Department of Biology & Centre for Urban Environments University of Toronto Mississauga Mississauga Ontario Canada
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Alien Species in the Pioneer and Ruderal Vegetation of Ukraine. DIVERSITY 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/d14121085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Invasions of nonnative plants are widely recognized as one of the major threats to the biodiversity of natural ecosystems on a global scale. Pioneer and ruderal habitats are the primary locations for the penetration of alien plants. Both pioneer and ruderal vegetation are very close in their genesis and beginning of development; therefore, a comparative analysis of their alien components and historical trends would contribute to clarifying the direction of successional changes and the possible management of destructive processes caused by anthropogenic influences in different types of habitats. The results of a structural and comparative analysis of the alien fractions of the coenofloras of the pioneer and ruderal vegetation of Ukraine indicated that the systematic, biomorphological, ecological, and geographical structures of these species show a high similarity, according to many of the main indicators, which allows them to successfully implement a strategy of invasion, particularly in communities characterized by instability and weak coenotic connections. It was established that the ecotopes of both types of vegetation are very favorable to the penetration and establishment of alien species; however, disturbed habitats of the ruderal type are more prone to invasions. In the communities of both pioneer and ruderal vegetation, alien species can become successfully established at the coenotic level, forming phytocoenoses of different hierarchical ranks. The results of this study will contribute to the identification of general patterns of invasions and the optimization (management) of disturbed and unstable natural ecosystems.
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Loughlin NJD, Gosling WD, Duivenvoorden JF, Cuesta F, Mothes P, Montoya E. Incorporating a palaeo-perspective into Andean montane forest restoration. FRONTIERS IN CONSERVATION SCIENCE 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fcosc.2022.980728] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Reference ecosystems used in tropical forest restoration lack the temporal dimension required to characterise a mature or intact vegetation community. Here we provide a practical ‘palaeo-reference ecosystem’ for the eastern Andean forests of Ecuador to complement the standard ‘reference ecosystem’ approach. Pollen assemblages from sedimentary archives recovered from Ecuadorian montane forests are binned into distinct time periods and characterised as 1) Ancient (pre-human arrival), 2) Pre-European (Indigenous cultivation), 3) Successional (European arrival/Indigenous depopulation), 4) Mature (diminished human population), 5) Deforested (re-colonisation), and 6) Modern (industrial agriculture). A multivariate statistical approach is then used to identify the most recent period in which vegetation can be characterised as mature. Detrended correspondence analysis indicates that the pollen spectra from CE 1718-1819 (time bin 4 – Mature (diminished human population)) is most similar to that of a pre-human arrival mature or intact state. The pollen spectra of this period are characterised by Melastomataceae, Fabaceae, Solanaceae and Weinmannia. The vegetation of the 1700s, therefore, provides the most recent phase of substantial mature vegetation that has undergone over a century of recovery, representing a practical palaeo-reference ecosystem. We propose incorporating palynological analyses of short cores spanning the last 500 years with botanical inventory data to achieve more realistic and long-term restoration goals.
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Murphy HT, Bradford MG. The role of big trees and abundant species in driving spatial patterns of species richness in an Australian tropical rainforest. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e9324. [PMID: 36188495 PMCID: PMC9486822 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9324] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2022] [Revised: 07/08/2022] [Accepted: 08/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Big trees and abundant species dominate forest structure and composition. As a result, their spatial distribution and interactions with other species and individuals may contribute disproportionately to the emergence of spatial heterogeneity in richness patterns. We tested scale-dependent spatial patterning and species richness structures to understand the role of individual trees (big trees) and species (abundant species) in driving spatial richness patterns on a 25 ha plot in a diverse tropical forest of Australia. The individual species area relationship (ISAR) was used to assess species richness in neighborhoods ranging from 1 to 50 m radii around all big trees (≥70 cm dbh, n = 296) and all species with more than 100 individuals in the plot (n = 53). A crossed ISAR function was also used to compute species richness around big trees for trees of different size classes. Big individuals exert some spatial structuring on other big and mid-sized trees in local neighborhoods (up to 30 m and 16 m respectively), but not on small trees. While most abundant species were neutral with respect to richness patterns, we identified consistent species-specific signatures on spatial patterns of richness for 14 of the 53 species. Seven species consistently had higher than expected species richness in their neighborhood (species "accumulators"), and seven had lower than expected (species "repellers") across all spatial scales. Common traits of accumulators and repeller species suggest that niche partitioning along disturbance gradients is a primary mechanism driving spatial richness patterns, which is then manifested in large-scale spatial heterogeneity in species distributions across the plot.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helen T. Murphy
- CSIRO, Australian Tropical Sciences and Innovation PrecinctJames Cook UniversityTownsvilleQueenslandAustralia
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Hlásny T, Augustynczik ALD, Dobor L. Time matters: Resilience of a post-disturbance forest landscape. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 799:149377. [PMID: 34364282 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2021] [Revised: 07/27/2021] [Accepted: 07/27/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Present-day disturbances are transforming European forest landscapes, and their legacies determine the vulnerability and resilience of the emergent forest generation. To understand these legacy effects, we investigated the resilience of the aboveground forest biomass (Babg) to a sequence of disturbances affecting the forest in different recovery phases from the initial large-scale impact. We used the model iLand to simulate windthrows that affected 13-24% of the Babg in a Central European forest landscape. An additional wind event was simulated 20, 40, 60, or 80 years after the initial impact (i.e., sequences of two windthrows were defined). Each windthrow triggered an outbreak of bark beetles that interacted with the recovery processes. We evaluated the resistance of the Babg to and recovery after the impact. Random Forest models were used to identify factors influencing resilience. We found that Babg resistance was the lowest 20 years after the initial impact when the increased proportion of emergent wind-exposed forest edges prevailed the disturbance-dampening effect of reduced biomass levels and increased landscape heterogeneity. This forest had a remarkably high recovery rate and reached the pre-disturbance Babg within 28 years. The forest exhibited a higher resistance and a slower recovery rate in the more advanced recovery phases, reaching the pre-disturbance Babg within 60-80 years. The recovery was enhanced by higher levels of alpha and beta diversity. Under elevated air temperature, the bark beetle outbreak triggered by windthrow delayed the recovery. However, the positive effect of increased temperature on forest productivity caused the recovery rate to be higher under the warming scenario than under the reference climate. We conclude that resilience is not a static property, but its magnitude and drivers vary in time, depending on vegetation feedbacks, interactions between disturbances, and climate. Understanding these mechanisms is an essential step towards the operationalization of resilience-oriented stewardship.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomáš Hlásny
- Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
| | - Andrey L D Augustynczik
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria.
| | - Laura Dobor
- Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
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Seddon AWR. Special feature: measuring components of ecological resilience in long-term ecological datasets. Biol Lett 2021; 17:20200881. [PMID: 33497590 PMCID: PMC7876599 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2020.0881] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Ecological resilience has become a focal concept in ecosystem management. Palaeoecological records (i.e. the sub-fossil remains preserved in sediments) are useful archives to address ecological resilience since they can be used to reconstruct long-term temporal variations in ecosystem properties. The special feature presented here includes nine new papers from members and associates of the PAGES EcoRe3 community. The papers build on previous work in palaeoecology to investigate, identify and compare components of ecosystem resilience on centennial to millennial timescales. There are four key messages that can be summarized from the findings of papers within the special feature: (i) multi-proxy studies reveal insights into the presence and mechanisms of alternative states; (ii) transitions between alternative states may not necessarily be abrupt; (iii) components of ecological resilience can be identified in long-term ecological data and (iv) the palaeoecological record can also provide insights into factors influencing the resilience of ecosystem functioning. Overall, these papers demonstrate the importance of using long-term ecological records for addressing questions related to the theoretical framework provided by ecological resilience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alistair W R Seddon
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.,Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway
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A Tale of Maize, Palm, and Pine: Changing Socio-Ecological Interactions from Pre-Classic Maya to the Present Day in Belize. QUATERNARY 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/quat3040030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The environmental impact of the ancient Maya, and subsequent ecological recovery following the Terminal Classic decline, have been the key foci of research into socio-ecological interactions in the Yucatán peninsula. These foci, however, belie the complex pattern of resource exploitation and agriculture associated with post-Classic Maya societies and European colonisation. We present a high-resolution, 1200-year record of pollen and charcoal data from a 52-cm short core extracted from New River Lagoon, near to the European settlement of Indian Church, northern Belize. This study complements and extends a previous 3500-year reconstruction of past environmental change, located 1-km north of the new record and adjacent to the ancient Maya site of Lamanai. This current study shows a mixed crop production and palm agroforestry management strategy of the ancient Maya, which corroborates previous evidence at Lamanai. Comparison of the two records suggests that core agricultural and agroforestry activities shifted southwards, away from the centre of Lamanai, beginning at the post-Classic period. The new record also demonstrates that significant changes in land-use were not associated with drought at the Terminal Classic (ca. CE 1000) or the European Encounter (ca. CE 1500), but instead resulted from social and cultural change in the post-Classic period (CE 1200) and new economies associated with the British timber trade (CE 1680). The changes in land-use documented in two adjacent records from the New River Lagoon underline the need to reconstruct human–environment interactions using multiple, spatially, and temporally diverse records.
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Adolf C, Tovar C, Kühn N, Behling H, Berrío JC, Dominguez-Vázquez G, Figueroa-Rangel B, Gonzalez-Carranza Z, Islebe GA, Hooghiemstra H, Neff H, Olvera-Vargas M, Whitney B, Wooller MJ, Willis KJ. Identifying drivers of forest resilience in long-term records from the Neotropics. Biol Lett 2020; 16:20200005. [PMID: 32228400 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2020.0005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Here, we use 30 long-term, high-resolution palaeoecological records from Mexico, Central and South America to address two hypotheses regarding possible drivers of resilience in tropical forests as measured in terms of recovery rates from previous disturbances. First, we hypothesize that faster recovery rates are associated with regions of higher biodiversity, as suggested by the insurance hypothesis. And second, that resilience is due to intrinsic abiotic factors that are location specific, thus regions presently displaying resilience in terms of persistence to current climatic disturbances should also show higher recovery rates in the past. To test these hypotheses, we applied a threshold approach to identify past disturbances to forests within each sequence. We then compared the recovery rates to these events with pollen richness before the event. We also compared recovery rates of each site with a measure of present resilience in the region as demonstrated by measuring global vegetation persistence to climatic perturbations using satellite imagery. Preliminary results indeed show a positive relationship between pre-disturbance taxonomic richness and faster recovery rates. However, there is less evidence to support the concept that resilience is intrinsic to a region; patterns of resilience apparent in ecosystems presently are not necessarily conservative through time.
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Affiliation(s)
- C Adolf
- Long-Term Ecology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - C Tovar
- Biodiversity Informatics and Spatial Analysis, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Richmond, UK
| | - N Kühn
- Biodiversity Informatics and Spatial Analysis, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Richmond, UK.,School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - H Behling
- University of Göttingen, Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics, Albrecht-von-Haller Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - J C Berrío
- School of Geography, Geology and Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
| | - G Dominguez-Vázquez
- Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Facultad de Biología. Morelia, México
| | - B Figueroa-Rangel
- Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Centro Universitario de la Costa Sur, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico
| | - Z Gonzalez-Carranza
- Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - G A Islebe
- Departamento de Conservación de la Biodiversidad, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), Chetumal, Mexico
| | - H Hooghiemstra
- Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - H Neff
- Department of Anthropology and IIIRMES, California State University, Long Beach, USA
| | - M Olvera-Vargas
- Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Centro Universitario de la Costa Sur, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico
| | - B Whitney
- Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
| | - M J Wooller
- Institute of Northern Engineering and College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, USA
| | - K J Willis
- Long-Term Ecology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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