Understanding population responses to novel environments is a central concern of both
evolutionary biology and ecology (Maynard Smith 1989; Bradshaw 1991; Hoffman and …

Because of the ubiquity of genetic variation for quantitative traits, virtually all populations
have some capacity to respond evolutionarily to selective challenges. However, natural …

We analyze mathematical models to examine how the genetic basis of fitness affects the
persistence of a population suddenly encountering a harsh environment where it would go …

Theories of adaptation typically ignore the effect of environmental change on population
size. But some environmental challenges—challenges to which populations must adapt …

Adaptation, Plasticity, and Extinction in a Changing Environment: Towards a Predictive Theory |
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The ubiquity of global change and its impacts on biodiversity poses a clear and urgent
challenge for evolutionary biologists. In many cases, environmental change is so …

Populations can benefit from environmental change, but this chapter focuses on situations
where the environment is shifting toward conditions that are unsuitable for a locally adapted …

Evolutionary rescue occurs when a population that is threatened with extinction by an
environmental change adapts to the change sufficiently rapidly to survive. Here we extend …

Abstract We have investigated the reduction of fitness caused by the fixation of new
deleterious mutations in small populations within the framework of Fisher's geometrical …

We discuss three interlinked issues: the natural pace of environmental change and
adaptation, the likelihood that a population will adapt to a potentially lethal change, and …