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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 15, 2026

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications
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Adaptive dynamics on an environmental gradient that changes over a geological time-scale.

Mikael Fortelius1, Stefan Geritz2, Mats Gyllenberg2

  • 1Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, FI-00014, Finland.

Journal of Theoretical Biology
|April 12, 2015
PubMed
Summary

This study introduces a geological timescale to adaptive dynamics, revealing that populations can evolve on steep environmental gradients. Phenotypes in moderate environments are more prone to branching than those at environmental extremes.

Keywords:
Environmental changeMathematical modelingPatterns of the fossil recordSpatial model

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Theoretical ecology
  • Geological timescales

Background:

  • Adaptive dynamics models typically consider fast population and slow evolutionary timescales.
  • Environmental changes, such as climate shifts, occur over much slower geological timescales.
  • Integrating these timescales is crucial for understanding long-term evolutionary trajectories.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate evolutionary dynamics across a geological timescale incorporating climatic change.
  • To analyze the evolution of phenotypic traits under varying environmental gradients.
  • To explore conditions favoring gradual evolution versus punctuated speciation events.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the adaptive dynamics framework with a focus on a slow geological timescale.
  • Employed bifurcation plots to visualize evolutionary outcomes under changing abiotic conditions.
  • Constructed evolutionary trees to track phenotypic evolution and branching patterns over geological time.

Main Results:

  • Observed both gradual phenotypic evolution and punctuated branching events across the geological timescale.
  • Confirmed that branching on environmental gradients requires intermediate gradient steepness for initial monomorphic populations.
  • Demonstrated that evolution can lead to polymorphic populations capable of inhabiting steep environmental gradients, provided initial branching conditions are met.
  • Found that phenotypes at the middle of the environmental range exhibit higher branching propensity than those at extreme ranges.

Conclusions:

  • The adaptive dynamics framework can be extended to geological timescales to model evolution under climatic change.
  • Environmental gradients and their evolution play a critical role in shaping biodiversity through gradual and punctuated evolutionary processes.
  • Understanding the interplay between environmental change and evolutionary adaptation is key to predicting species' responses to long-term environmental shifts.