nsf.gov - National Science Foundation - How evolutionary principles could help save our world

Battling modern threats to food, land and health with applied evolutionary biology

A Ethiopian child about to get her measles vaccination. Credit and Larger Version

September 11, 2014

The age of the Anthropocene--the scientific name given to our current geologic age--is dominated by human impacts on our environment. A warming climate. Increased resistance of pathogens and pests. A swelling population. Coping with these modern global challenges requires application of what one might call a more-ancient principle: evolution.

That's the recommendation of a diverse group of researchers, in a paper published today in the online version of the journal Science. A majority of the nine authors on the paper have received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"Evolution isn't just about the past anymore, it's about the present and the future," said Scott Carroll, an evolutionary ecologist at University of California-Davis and one of the paper's authors. Addressing societal challenges--food security, emerging diseases, biodiversity loss--in a sustainable way is "going to require evolutionary thinking."

The paper reviews current uses of evolutionary biology and recommends specific ways the field can contribute to the international sustainable development goals (SDGs), now in development by the United Nations.

Evolutionary biology has "tremendous potential" to solve many of the issues highlighted in the SDGs, said Peter Søgaard Jørgensen, another Science author from the University of Copenhagen's Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate. The field accounts for how pests may adapt rapidly to our interventions and how vulnerable species struggle to adapt to global change. The authors even chose this release date to coincide with the upcoming meeting of the UN General Assembly, which starts September 24.

Their recommendations include gene therapies to treat disease, choosing drought-and-flood-resistant crop varieties and altering conservation strategies to protect land with high levels of genetic diversity.

"Many human-engineered solutions to societal problems have turned out to have a relatively short useful life because evolution finds ways around them," said George Gilchrist, program officer in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded many of the Science authors. "Carroll and colleagues propose turning the tables and using evolutionary processes to develop more robust and dynamic solutions."

Applied evolutionary biology just recently made the leap from an academic discipline to a more-practical one, spurred by an effort within the community to better synthesize and share research insights. And--above all--increasing environmental pressures.

"The fact that we're changing the world means that evolutionary processes are going to be affected," said Thomas Smith, of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and another Science author. The question is, according to Smith: Do we want to be engaged in this change, or not?

The paper also serves as a platform for establishing a cross-disciplinary field of applied evolutionary biology, Carroll said, and a way to promote the field as a path to sustainable development solutions.

"Evolutionary biology touches on many elements of the life sciences, from medicine to conservation biology to agriculture," said Smith. "And unfortunately, there hasn't been an effort to unify across these fields."

This disconnect exists despite the use of evolutionary tactics in many disciplines: treating HIV with a cocktail of drugs, for example, to slow pathogen resistance. And the effects of evolution already swirl in the public consciousness--and spark debate. Think of the arguments for and against genetically modified crops, or warnings about the increasing price of combating drug resistance (which costs more than $20 billion in the U.S. each year, according to the nonprofit Alliance for Prudent Use of Antibiotics).

Seldom are these issues described in an evolutionary context, said Smith. "We're missing an opportunity to educate the public about the importance of evolutionary principles in our daily lives."

In conservation, evolutionary approaches are often disregarded because of the belief that evolution is beyond our ability to manage and too slow to be useful, according to a paper Smith co-authored in the journal Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics (AREES).

That article, recently published online, also tackles applied evolution. It was co-authored by Carroll, University of Maine Biologist Michael Kinnison, Sharon Strauss--of the Department of Evolution and Ecology at University of California-Davis--and Trevon Fuller of UCLA's Tropical Research Institute. All are NSF-funded. Kinnison and Strauss are also co-authors on the Science paper.

Yet contemporary evolution--what scientists are observing now--happens on timescales of months to a few hundred years, and can influence conservation management outcomes, according to the AREES paper.

Considering the evolutionary potential and constraints of species is also essential to combat "evolutionary mismatch." This means the environment a species exists in, and the one it has evolved to exist in, no longer match.

Such disharmony can be "dire and costly," the authors write in Science, citing the increasingly sedentary lifestyles--and processed food diets--of modern humans. These lifestyles are linked with increasing rates of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disorders. Restoring our health requires greater physical activity and less refined carbohydrates: "Diets and activity levels closer to those of the past, to which we are better adapted," the Science paper said.

Implementing applied evolutionary principles often requires very careful thinking about social incentives, said Jørgensen. Public vaccination programs, for example, and pest control in crops often create tension between individual and public good.

Applied evolution, therefore, requires input from biologists, doctors, agriculturalists: "We're making a call for policy makers, decision-makers at all levels," to be involved, Jørgensen said.

Evolutionary biologists don't have all the answers, said Smith. And using applied evolution is not without risk. But we have reached a point "where we need to take risks in many cases," he said. "We can't just sit back and be overly conservative, or we're going to lose the game."

-NSF-

Media Contacts Jessica Arriens, NSF, (703) 292-2243, jarriens@nsf.gov

Related WebsitesLong-Term Investigation of Evolution in a Community Context:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0416326&HistoricalAwards=false
Evolution of persistence in the model bacterium, Sinorhizobium:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0918897&HistoricalAwards=false
Genetic and Host Plant Influences in Insect Population Differentiation:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9021106&HistoricalAwards=false
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Behavioral Flexibilty in an Insect:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9306818&HistoricalAwards=false
Suppression of rhizobial reproduction by legumes: Implications for mutualism:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0918986&HistoricalAwards=false
IGERT: Biological Invasions: From Genes to Ecosystems, From Science to Society:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0114432&HistoricalAwards=false
Adaptive Divergence Versus Gene Flow in the Wild: Evaluation in Trinidadian Guppy Populations:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0235605&HistoricalAwards=false
IGERT:REsponding to RApid Environmental CHange (REACH): From genes to ecosystems, science to society:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0801430&HistoricalAwards=false
PIRE: Mapping Evolutionary Process in the Face of Climate Change: An Integrated Approach to Education and Conservation Prioritization in Central Africa:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1243524&HistoricalAwards=false

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2014, its budget is $7.2 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $593 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
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A caterpillar of pink bollworm, which has evolved to resistance to genetically modified cotton.
Credit and Larger Version

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, or MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Credit and Larger Version

A killer whale viewed by child. Both animals are slow to evolve.
Credit and Larger Version

The researchers' findings are described online in Science Sept. 11, 2014.
Credit and Larger Version
The National Science Foundation (NSF)
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
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Discovery: From Lake to Land, in a Land of Lakes

Hi My Friends: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., Moose act as conduits of nitrogen between water bodies and the edges of lakes, ponds

 Isle Royale is a perfect place for moose: water in every direction; shores lined with pondweed, water lilies and other aquatic vegetation upon which moose feed; and nearby forests laden with other favored moose foods like the buds and twigs of willow, aspen, red dogwood and balsam fir trees.
Credit: John Vucetich

 Scientists have studied moose and wolves on Isle Royale in Lake Superior for five decades.
Credit: John Vucetich

 Aquatic macrophytes--large plants of lakes and ponds--are important in a moose's diet.
Credit: John Vucetich

 The shores of Isle Royale are lined with the vegetation moose prefer.
Credit: John Vucetich

 Ojibwe refer to the moose as "mooz," or "twig eater," for good reason.
Credit: John Vucetich

 Briefly interrupted in a twig dinner, a moose surveys Isle Royale's landscape.
Credit: John Vucetich

This article is the fourth in a series on NSF's Long Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB) awards. Visit parts one, two and three.

What animal can see only a limited distance, has no top front teeth, and prefers shady, wet areas such as bogs and marshes?

If you guessed a moose, Alces alces, you'd be correct.

When summer or autumn travels take you through northern regions dotted with lakes and ponds, you may glimpse this creature, water dripping from its bell--the flap of skin under its throat. It's most often visible in early morning and at dusk, and in low, wet areas.

Like many of us, moose don't like hot weather. They overheat at summer temperatures above 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius). So, on hot days they take to the waters--the edges of wet bogs lined with shade trees.

What moose find there is of interest to ecologists Joseph Bump, Rolf Peterson and John Vucetich of Michigan Technological University.

With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the scientists study relationships between moose, wolves and the environment on a remote island in Lake Superior called Isle Royale. The project has been ongoing for five decades.

Isle Royale is a perfect place for moose: water in every direction; shores lined with pondweed, water lilies and other aquatic vegetation upon which moose feed; and nearby forests laden with other favored moose foods like the buds and twigs of willow, aspen, red dogwood and balsam fir trees.

Moose live in the northern areas of North America, Europe and Eurasia in the cold climates of mixed deciduous-coniferous forests.  They're the northern forest's largest herbivores.

Each moose chomps down about three million bites of shrubs and trees and eats three metric tons of leaves and twigs every year. The Ojibwe people, Native Americans long familiar with the animal, call it "mooz," meaning "twig eater."

A typical moose, which weighs almost 800 pounds, may eat up to 70 pounds of food each day. The average adult moose consumes some 9,770 calories per day to maintain its body weight.

Some of a moose's energy comes from vegetation that grows on land, but many land-based plants are low in sodium. The larger plants of lakes, ponds and wetlands, known as aquatic macrophytes, provide moose with the sodium they need. As much as half a moose's diet consists of aquatic macrophytes.

Where do the remains from all this foraging wind up?

They come ashore, according to research conducted by Bump, Peterson and Vucetich, along with Keren Tischler of Common Coast Research & Conservation in Hancock, Mich., and Amy Schrank of the University of Michigan Biological Station.

When moose forage on aquatic macrophytes, which are also rich in nitrogen, then make their way onto land, they're acting as a conduit for the plants' nitrogen. Spots in which moose excrete waste, and where they die, are direct routes from water-to-land for this element.

"Moose transfer significant amounts of aquatic-derived nitrogen to terrestrial [on land] ecosystems," says Bump. "They greatly increase nitrogen in riparian, or shoreline, zones."

The scientists looked at how this process happens by analyzing data on moose densities, foraging parameters, excretion models and moose carcass locations. They published the results in a paper in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

"Nutrients in salmon, birds, river otters, insects and other animals play a major role in linking aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems," says Bump.

Predators also influence that nutrient transfer. On Isle Royale, when moose are killed by wolves, what's left of their bodies decomposes, transferring nitrogen from the aquatic plants the moose once ate to the land that ultimately lies beneath them.

"It's hard to imagine what species as diverse as moose, salmon and midges, for example, might have in common," says Saran Twombly, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.

"Yet all three transfer significant quantities of nutrients from aquatic to terrestrial habitats. On Isle Royale, wolves add to this total amount. They kill moose in specific locations and generate 'hotspots' where nitrogen is transferred from lake to shore."

Moose first arrived on Isle Royale in the early 1900s and increased rapidly in what was once a predator-free environment.  Then wolves found their way to the island in the late 1940s; they crossed a winter ice bridge that connected Isle Royale with mainland Ontario. "The lives of Isle Royale moose would never be the same," says Vucetich.

The island's moose population is usually between 700 and 1,200 animals. Wolves there, now down to nine, at times have reached nearly 50.

Isle Royale's moose increase soil nutrients and microbial biomass, change soil microbial composition and increase nitrogen in plants near kill sites for at least two or three years after a moose's death.

"It's clear that moose link aquatic macrophytes with terrestrial animal and microbial communities," says Vucetich.  "Our analysis of long-term carcass patterns--where moose die--shows exactly where such food web links occur on the landscape.

"Given the circumpolar extent of moose, they and the wolves that prey upon them are an important aquatic-terrestrial resource vector in northern ecosystems."

 The National Science Foundation (NSF)

 Related WebsitesMoose & Wolves of Isle Royale: http://www.isleroyalewolf.org
All About Moose: http://www.isleroyalewolf.org/overview/overview/moose.html

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com

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