How fast is fast? Eco-evolutionary dynamics and rates of change in populations and phenotypes.

ABSTRACT: It is increasingly recognized that evolution may occur in ecological time. It is not clear, however, how fast evolution - or phenotypic change more generally - may be in comparison with the associated ecology, or whether systems with fast ecological dynamics generally have relatively fast rates of phenotypic change. We developed a new dataset on standardized rates of change in population size and phenotypic traits for a wide range of species and taxonomic groups. We show that rates of change in phenotypes are generally no more than 2/3, and on average about 1/4, the concurrent rates of change in population size. There was no relationship between rates of population change and rates of phenotypic change across systems. We also found that the variance of both phenotypic and ecological rates

SUBMITTER: DeLong JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4729258 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature