A lack of genetic diversity can leave a species vulnerable to diseases or threats like a change in climate, because they don't have the evolutionary resources that they need to cope.
Populations that arise from just a few individuals, however, tend to have members that share a relatively high percentage of DNA a lack of genetic diversity that can strip them of the evolutionary resources that they may someday need to respond to a deadly new disease, a change in climate, or some other challenge.
This results in evolutionary stagnation: resource distributions are more in equilibrium and resource cycling is slower than in the null model.
This accordion-like dynamic provides direct experimental evidence that competition for resources can cause evolutionary shifts in resource-related characters.
The first stage, diversification in habitat, occurs in the early stages of evolutionary radiations, when resource competition promotes the use of different habitats.
The ecological and evolutionary consequences of resource management decisions are further discussed in the review of Ashley et al. [ 80], advocating evolutionary enlightened management.
These might include range evolution during vicariance events and the development of migratory behaviour (Lundberg, 1988; Perez-Tris et al., 2004; Mila et al., 2006), which may eventually precipitate evolutionary shifts in resource use or habitat selection.
The panel Expanding Resources for Teaching Evolutionary Thinking discussed existing resources, how they are growing, and lessons learned in the development of these resources.
Previously we argued that the evolutionary stagnation of resources and their shortest cycles was caused by the indirect selection for cycling resources.
To dig deeper into some of the examples discussed in this article, visit the following Understanding Evolution resources: Evolutionary evidence takes the stand.
