- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"Two categories of evolutionary challenges result from escalating human impacts on the planet," Carroll says. "The first arises from cancers, pathogens and pests evolving too quickly, and the second from the inability of many valued species to adapt quickly enough."
Carroll says that applied evolutionary biology offers strategies to address these global challenges that threaten human health, food security and biodiversity and natural resources.
He will highlight both progress and gaps in evolutionary methods across the life sciences that either "target the rate and director of evolution or reduce the mismatch between organisms and human-altered environments."
"Refining and applying these underused tools will be vial for meeting current and future targets for sustainable development."
Carroll does research on patterns of ongoing evolution in wild and anthropogenic environments. He is well-known for his studies on evolutionary changes in soapberry bugs in response to plant introductions. His expertise includes behavioral and evolutionary aspects of adaptation to contemporary environmental change in insects and other organisms.
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See latest research on evolutionary biology techniques
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
See Science Express: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/09/10/science.1245993.full.pdf
The paper appears in the Sept. 11 in Science Express, which makes important papers available to readers before they appear in the journal Science. The first-of-its-kind study will appear in a November edition of the journal.
“Evolutionary biology is often overlooked in the study of global challenges,” said lead author Scott Carroll of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the Institute for Contemporary Evolution, also in Davis. “By looking at humanity's problems across the domains of nature conservation, food production and human health, it is clear that we need to strengthen evolutionary biology throughout the disciplines and develop a shared language among them.”
The study, “Applying Evolutionary Biology to Address Global Challenges,” calls attention to how evolutionary biology techniques can be used to address challenges in agriculture, medicine and environmental sciences, said Carroll, noting that these techniques, although seemingly unrelated, work within a similar set of evolutionary processes.
“These techniques range from limiting the use of antibiotics to avoid resistant bacteria and breeding crops with desired benefits such as flood tolerant rice, to less commonly implemented strategies such as gene therapy to treat human disease, and planting non-native plants to anticipate climate change,” Carroll said.
“A particular worry is the unaddressed need for management of evolution that spans multiple sectors, such as occurs in the spread of new infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance genes between natural, human health and agricultural systems.”
Co-lead researcher and biologist Peter Søgaard Jørgensen of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, agrees. “Many of the global challenges we face today have common biological solutions,” he said, “but we can tackle them effectively only if we are aware of successes and progress in all fields using evolutionary biology as a tool.”
In their paper, the nine researchers—two from UC Davis, one from UCLA and six from universities in Denmark, New Zealand, Maine, Minnesota, Washington state and Arizona--crafted a graphic wheel divided into three sectors, food, health and environment and cited the challenges that link them together, including rapid revolution and phenotype environment mismatch in more slowly reproducing or threatened species.
Carroll said the underlying causes of societal challenges such as food security, emerging disease and biodiversity loss “have more in common than we think.”
“Humans, pathogens and all other life on earth adapt to their environment through evolution, but some adaptation happens too quickly and some too slowly to benefit human society,” Carroll said. “Current efforts to overcome societal challenges are likely only to create larger problems if evolutionary biology is not swiftly and widely implementedto achieve sustainable development.”
Society faces two sorts of challenges from evolution, the research team said. “The first occurs when pests and pathogens we try to kill or control persist or even prosper because the survivors and their offspring can resist our actions,” Carroll said. “The second challenge arises when species we value adapt too slowly, including humans.”
Although practices in health, agriculture and environmental conservation differ, each field can better target challenges using the same applications of evolutionary biology, they said.
For example, when a farmer plants a crop that is susceptible to pests, he might actually help the agricultural community as a whole by slowing down evolution of pesticide resistance, the authors said, citing an applied evolutionary biology tactic used in agriculture.
Planting pest-friendly crops has been used in the United States with good results, the team said. Farmers planting these crops slow the evolution of resistance to genetically modified corn and other crops. Pests then reproduce in abundance eating the susceptible plants, and when a rare resistant mutant matures on a toxic diet, it is most likely to mate with a susceptible partner, keeping susceptibility alive. This approach works to suppress the unwanted evolution on the whole, but farmers will have sacrificed a short-term gain for the long-term good.
Similar innovative solutions exist across the fields of medicine and environmental conservation, they said.
“This is an example of how implementing applied evolutionary biology without a plan for regulatory measures may come at short-term costs to some individuals that others may avoid.” Jorgensen said. “By using regulatory tools, decision makers such as local communities and governments play a crucial role in ensuring that everybody gains from the benefits of using evolutionary biology to realize the long-term goals of increasing food security, protecting biodiversity and improving human health and well-being.”
Other co-authors are Michael T. Kinnison, University of Maine; Carl Bergstrom, University of Washington; R. Ford Denison, University of Minnesota; Peter Gluckman, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Thomas B. Smith, UCLA; Sharon Strauss, UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology and Center for Population Biology, and Bruce Tabashnik, University of Arizona.
Carroll is an affiliate of the Sharon Lawler lab, UC Davis Entomology and Nematology. The research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the Australian-American Fulbright Commission.
Contact:
Scott Carroll
Email: spcarroll@ucdavis.edu
Phone: (530) 297-6980
Cell: (530) 902-8267
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Carroll, the founding director of the Institute for Contemporary Evolution, is a member of the Sharon Lawler lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the journal, published by the International Society for Behavior Ecology, the editors chose the most influential articles and reviews, and compiled them in a celebratory Virtual Issue.
Carroll's paper on the ecology and genetics of adaptive differences among soapberry bug populations in the plasticity of mating behavior, was not only selected as the most influential paper, but his photograph of the bugs at his study site, the Florida Keys, graced the cover.
Editor-in-chief Leigh Simmons of the Center for Evolutionary Biology, University of Western Australia, described Carroll's work as "a beautiful study of divergence in phenotypic plasticity in mate guarding in these creatures."
The research paper is titled Divergence in Male Mating Tactics between Two Populations of the Soapberry Bug: II. Genetic Change and the Evolution of a Plastic Reaction Norm in a Variable Social Environment.
Carroll conducted the research as part of his dissertation at the University of Utah, under professor Eric Charnov. He co-authored the paper while a post-doctoral scholar in the laboratory of Hugh Dingle, UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology). His co-author, Patrice Corneli, now an associate research professor in the Department of Biology, University of Utah, analyzed aspects of the data for her master's thesis in statistics, also awarded at the University of Utah.
As the director of the Institute for Contemporary Evolution, Carroll does research on patterns of ongoing evolution in wild and anthropogenic environments. His studies on evolutionary changes in soapberry bugs in response to plant introductions are seminal contributions to our understanding of diversification.
The UC Davis evolutionary ecologist is the co-editor of the book, Conservation Biology: Evolution in Action (Oxford University Press, 2008) with Charles Fox, professor of insect genetics, behavior and evolutionary ecology, University of Kentucky.
Highly recognized for his work, Carroll co-authored a research paper that was selected in 2013 as one of the top 100 most influential papers ever published in the worldwide British Ecological Society, headquartered in London. The 13-page article, “Adaptive Versus Non-Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity and the Potential for Contemporary Adaptation in New Environments,” was published in April 2007 (Volume 21) in the society's journal, Functional Ecology.
Scott received his bachelor's degree in ecology and behavioral ecology, magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota in 1981, and then went on the earn his maser's degree in zoology, with distinction, from the University of Oklahoma in 1983 before receiving his doctorate in biology in 1990 from the University of Utah.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Carroll will discuss “An Approach to Conservation that Reconciles Past, Present and Future Landscapes in Nature” at The Club, located at 595 Market St., second floor. This is part of the ongoing forum topic, “Science of Conservation and Biodiversity in the 21st century.”
Biologists are now considering the “conciliation approach,” said spokesperson Chisako Ress, chair of the Science & Technology Member-Led Forum. “This approach recognizes that mutual adaption of native and non-native species is changing best practices for promoting biodiversity. Dr. Carroll investigates how organisms respond to human-caused environmental change. He advocates for interdisciplinary solutions to problems of environmental conservation.”
A networking reception begins at 5:30 p.m., followed by the program at 6. The cost is $20 for non-members; $8 for members, and $7 for students (with valid ID). Registration is available through the website, http://www.commonwealthclub.org/ or by telephoning (415) 597-6705.
Ress said non-club-members can enjoy the program at the discounted rate of $8 (rather than $20), using the coupon code listed below:
Thursday, Jan. 30, 6 p.m. - Dr. Scott Carroll: Conciliation Biology: An Approach to Conservation that Reconciles Past, Present and Future Landscapes in Nature. Coupon Code: friendsforcarroll. For program detail and registration, please see: http://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2014-01-30/scott-carroll-conciliation-biology
Carroll, who directs the Institute for Contemporary Evolution, does research on patterns of ongoing evolution in wild and anthropogenic environments. His studies on evolutionary changes in soapberry bugs in response to plant introductions are seminal contributions to our understanding of diversification.
The UC Davis evolutionary ecologist is the co-editor of the book, Conservation Biology: Evolution in Action (Oxford University Press, 2008). with Charles Fox, professor of insect genetics, behavior and evolutionary ecology, University of Kentucky.
Carroll co-authored a research paper that was selected in 2013 as one of the top 100 most influential papers ever published by the worldwide British Ecological Society, headquartered in London. The 13-page article, “Adaptive Versus Non-Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity and the Potential for Contemporary Adaptation in New Environments,” published in April 2007 (Volume 21) in the British Ecological Society’s journal, Functional Ecology.
The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. It brings more than 400 annual events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy to 20,000 members. Its mission: to be the leading national forum open to all for the impartial discussion of public issues important to the membership, community and nation.
Founded in 1903, The Commonwealth Club has played host to a diverse and distinctive array of speakers, from Teddy Roosevelt in 1911 to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor Alec Baldwin and author Christopher Hitchens in recent years. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates have all given landmark speeches at The Club.
For members outside the Bay Area, the Club's weekly radio broadcast — the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 — is carried across the nation on public and commercial radio stations. The website archive features audio and video of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history.
Two UC Speakers Pending
Two more UC speakers, butterfly expert Arthur Shapiro of the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology and forest ecologist Joe McBride of UC Berkeley, are booked for talks at the Commonwealth Club. Ress said non-club-members can enjoy the programs at the discounted rate of $8 (rather than $20), using the coupon codes listed below:
Monday, March 24, Noon - Arthur M. Shapiro, UC Davis: Ecological Communities and the March of Time. Coupon Code: friendsforshapiro. For program detail and registration, please see: http://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2014-03-24/arthur-m-shapiro-ecological-communities-and-march-time
Wednesday, April 9, Noon - Joe R. McBride, UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management: The History, Ecology and Future of Eucalyptus Plantations in the Bay Area. Coupon Code: friendsformcbridge. For program detail and registration, please see: http://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2014-04-09/joe-r-mcbride-history-ecology-and-future-eucalyptus-plantations-bay-area
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Carroll co-authored the 13-page article, “Adaptive Versus Non-Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity and the Potential for Contemporary Adaptation in New Environments,” published in April 2007 (Volume 21) in the British Ecological Society’s journal, Functional Ecology.
C. K. Ghalambor of Colorado State University served as the lead author. Other researchers contributing, in addition to Carroll, were J. K. McKay of Colorado State University and D. N. Reznick of UC Riverside.
The society, founded in 1913, published the list as part of its 100th anniversary celebrated this year. The work is the only selection in the field of evolutionary ecology. All listings are organized by subdiscipline.
Journal editor/reviewer Fernando Valladares, an ecologist in Madrid, Spain, wrote: “The capacity of organisms to accommodate their form and function to changing environments is called phenotypic plasticity, a concept not well integrated into the Neo-Darwinian synthesis but gaining increasing recognition and interest. Phenotypic plasticity is at the core of rapidly expanding areas such as epigenetics and has become a key concept in understanding species responses to global change. An implicit assumption in many studies is that a plastic phenotypic change is beneficial, i.e. increases fitness of the individual organism capable of such adjustment or change in response to the environment. However, as Ghalambor et al. remind us, plasticity can be not only positive, but neutral and even negative for fitness. The paper makes a sound contribution to the situations where plasticity is adaptive, and revises scenarios where plasticity prevents or allows evolution by directional selection. The explicit recognition of the frequent case that plastic adjustments do not lead to perfectly optimal phenotypes is one of the several merits of this revision, in addition to the brilliant explanation of when plasticity is or can be adaptive. The paper has significant limitations, e.g. in not emphasizing that what is maladaptive today could be adaptive tomorrow, but reading it remains an inspiring experience.”
Based in professor Sharon Lawler’s lab, Carroll directs the Institute for Contemporary Evolution and does research on patterns of ongoing evolution in wild and anthropogenic environments. He is well-known for his studies on evolutionary changes in soapberry bugs in response to plant introductions. He is also an expert on behavioral and evolutionary aspects of adaptation to contemporary environmental change in insects and other organisms.
Carroll is the co-editor of the book, Conservation Biology: Evolution in Action (Oxford University Press, 2008) with Charles Fox, professor of insect genetics, behavior and evolutionary ecology, University of Kentucky.
The British Ecological Society, under the banner of “Advancing Ecology and Making it Count,” publishes and disseminates high-quality ecological research in a variety of different formats, including its five world-renowned journals, two prestigious book series and informative member bulletin.
