Next Thursday 01 June 2023 12:00 am on the Seminar Room - SS6 (Institutes building floor -1), Dr. David Berger (Uppsala University, Sweden) will give a Seminar on "Sexual Selection and Extinction Risk – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"
SEMINAR(i):
Sexual Selection and Extinction Risk – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
WHO?: Dr. David Berger (Uppsala University)
LANGUAGE?: English
WHEN?: Thursday 01/06/2023 - 12:00 am.
WHERE?: Seminar Room - SS6 (Institutes building floor -1)
ABSTRACT:
Ever since Charles Darwin’s own attempts at coming to grips with sexual selection, researchers have debated its influence on adaptation. More recently, particular attention has been devoted to understanding the impact of sexual selection on evolutionary rescue and extinction risk in populations facing rapid environmental change. A central issue underlying current controversies in this debate is the many opposing effects that sexual selection can have on reproduction and survival of individuals and populations. In this talk, using our own studies on seed beetles as a backdrop, I illustrate that these effects (some good, some bad, and some very ugly) all can occur simultaneously within natural populations. I further show that their impact on population demography and adaptive potential are strongly dependent on environmental parameters. I finish by discussing preliminary results from an ongoing experiment aimed to test recent theoretical predictions on the role of sexual selection in evolutionary rescue. Future research should aim to identify general mechanisms by which the environment and mating system interact to determine the fate of natural populations.
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