OOS 35

The Effects of Eco-Evolutionary Feedbacks on Communities, Ecosystems, and Responses to Environmental Change

Ecologists are increasingly recognizing that genetic variation among individuals can have major effects on the properties and dynamics of communities and ecosystems. Understanding the effects of environmental change on communities and ecosystems will require consideration of genetic variation and evolution. However, little is known about how evolutionary responses to environment affect community dynamics on ecological time scales. Research on eco-evolutionary feedbacks in species interactions has not been well integrated into study of global change. Similarly, study of local adaptation to environment has not been well integrated with the study of species interactions. New theory and data are required to predict how adaptation to changing environments will affect biodiversity and ecosystem function. Technological advances will make genetic data ever cheaper to obtain, opening new windows into non-model species. This session will lay foundations for linking theoretical and empirical approaches for an emerging topic in evolutionary ecology. The diverse perspectives within our session will identify complementary research questions and future directions. This session will have broad appeal due to the importance of basic and applied questions, the inclusion of theoretical and empirical approaches, and the diverse study systems.