The role of social evolution in resilience and adaptation in novel environments

Climate change, habitat degradation and excessive use of antibiotics and pesticides pose severe threats to natural populations, and thus an ability to predict how populations respond to environmental perturbations is becoming ever more important. Understanding how a population's evolutionary history affects its future resilience could therefore play a vital role in mitigation strategies.

Existing theory makes two contrasting predictions: (1) populations that have previously been exposed to stronger selection filters consist of hardier individuals and will be therefore more resilient to future extreme events; and (2) populations that have been exposed to more relaxed selection in their evolutionary past will have greater standing genetic variation and thus greater resilience to extreme events. Whether these predictions also apply to populations that have been exposed to differential selection through social interactions is largely unknown.

Using the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides, as a laboratory study system, I am investigating 1) whether the evolutionary history of parental care in a population affects its resilience, and capacity for adaptation, in novel environments. I'm also investigating 2) the type of new adaptations that can evolve rapidly upon exposure to harsher new environments, and 3) how quickly old adaptations are lost.