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Rapid evolution with generation overlap: the double-edged effect of dormancy

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Abstract

In life histories with generation overlap, selection that acts differently on different life-stages can produce reservoirs of genetic variation, for example, in long-lived iteroparous adults or long-lived dormant propagules. Such reservoirs provide “migration from the past” to the current population, and depending on the trend of environmental change, they have the potential either to slow adaptive evolution or accelerate it by re-introducing genotypes not affected by recent selection (e.g., through storage effect in a fluctuating environment). That is, the effect of generation overlap is a “double-edged sword,” with each edge cutting in a different direction. Here, we use sexual (quantitative trait) and asexual (clonal) models to explore the effects of generation overlap on adaptive evolution in a fluctuating environment, either with or without a trend in the mean environment state. Our analyses show that when environmental stochasticity scaled by strength of selection is intermediate and when the trend in mean environment is slow, intermediate values of generation overlap can maximize the rate of response to selection and minimize the adaptation lag between the trait mean and the environmental trend. Otherwise, increased generation overlap results in smaller selection response and larger adaptation lag. In the former case, low generation overlap results in low heritable trait variance, while high generation overlap increases the “migration load” from the past. Therefore, to understand the importance of rapid evolution and eco-evolutionary dynamics in the wild for organisms with overlapping generations, we need to understand the interaction of generation overlap, environmental stochasticity, and strength of selection.

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Acknowledgements

We thank two anonymous referees for detailed and helpful comments on the original manuscript.

Funding

M.Y. was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) 15H02642, 16K18618, 16H04846, and 18H02509 and by Hakubi Center for Advanced Research and John Mung Program of Kyoto University. N.G.H. was supported by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Grant 1007884, and by Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, while this paper was being prepared for publication. M.R. was supported by NERC-NE/K014048/1. S.P.E. was supported by US National Science Foundation grant DEB 1353039.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Systems Studies, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan

    Masato Yamamichi

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Masato Yamamichi, Nelson G. Hairston Jr. & Stephen P. Ellner

  3. Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Eawag, Dübendorf, Switzerland

    Nelson G. Hairston Jr.

  4. Department of Animal and Plant SciencesUniversity of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK

    Mark Rees

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  1. Masato Yamamichi
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  2. Nelson G. Hairston Jr.
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  3. Mark Rees
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  4. Stephen P. Ellner
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Correspondence to Masato Yamamichi.

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Yamamichi, M., Hairston, N.G., Rees, M. et al. Rapid evolution with generation overlap: the double-edged effect of dormancy. Theor Ecol 12, 179–195 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12080-019-0414-7

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