Evolutionary ecology of two anthropods in edge populations at expanding range margins.

The study of geographic range limits is a key issue in ecology and evolution that relates to some of the most significant environmental challenges facing humankind (e.g. biological invasions, climate change). Currently, global warming creates exciting evolutionary experiments where species shift their range limits. We want to compare the evolutionary ecology of edge and central populations in species that are expanding their range northwards and thereby shed light on the consequences for local ecological interactions and the potential for further range expansion. We will document how edge populations differ in ecologically relevant traits. To understand phenotypic differentiation in these traits we will quantify associated selection pressures, and study to which degree this differentiation is related to neutral and quantitative genetic and functional genetic/genomic variation. Furthermore, we will evaluate to which degree these evolutionary changes feed back to generate altered ecological interactions. These research questions will be explored by combining theory with monitoring, experimental and genetic/genomic approaches on two arthropod model systems, mites and damselflies. Finally, we will integrate acquired knowledge of both study groups and extend our empirical findings in space and time using a modeling approach.

Keywords:Evolutionary ecology, Global warming, Ecological genomics, Eco-evolutionary dynamics

Disciplines:Animal biology