Evolutionary rescue in vertebrates: evidence, applications and uncertainty

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Evolutionary Biology
• Conservation Science

Background:

• Human-driven environmental change creates novel challenges for wild populations.
• Evolutionary rescue, adaptation to survive environmental change, offers a potential mechanism for species persistence.
• Existing evidence for evolutionary rescue is limited, primarily from abundant species facing strong human-induced selection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the potential for evolutionary rescue in wild vertebrates.
• To review available evidence and identify factors influencing evolutionary rescue.
• To propose strategies for studying and applying evolutionary rescue to conservation.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature on evolutionary rescue in wild populations.
• Analysis of case studies involving adaptive tracking and genetic rescue.
• Identification of key demographic and genetic factors affecting rescue potential.

Main Results:

• Evidence for evolutionary rescue in wild vertebrates is scarce.
• Successful rescue is more likely in abundant, highly fecund species with significant anthropogenic pressures.
• Adaptive tracking in common species and genetic rescue in conservation-reliant species demonstrate the underlying mechanisms.

Conclusions:

• Evolutionary rescue is unlikely to occur frequently in endangered species due to small population size, long generation times, and limited genetic variability.
• Intervention may be necessary to facilitate evolutionary rescue in threatened populations.
• Mapping genotype-phenotype-demography-fitness relationships is crucial for understanding and applying evolutionary rescue.