Genetic erosion impedes adaptive responses to stressful environments

Biodiversity is increasingly subjected to human-induced changes of the environment. To persist, populations continually have to adapt to these often stressful changes including pollution and climate change. Genetic erosion in small populations, owing to fragmentation of natural habitats, is expected...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolutionary Applications
Main Authors: Bijlsma, R., Loeschcke, Volker
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
anthropogenic stress
changing environments
cost of inbreeding
genetic drift
genetic variation
habitat fragmentation
inbreeding depression
population persistence
EFFECTIVE POPULATION-SIZE
CANIS-LUPUS POPULATION
CLIMATE-CHANGE
DROSOPHILA-MELANOGASTER
PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY
CONSERVATION GENETICS
NATURAL-SELECTION
CONTEMPORARY ADAPTATION
INSECTICIDE RESISTANCE
Canis lupus
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11370/b606912f-6b9d-4b58-a13b-88bd17367527
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/b606912f-6b9d-4b58-a13b-88bd17367527
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-4571.2011.00214.x
https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/55916099/Bijlsma_et_al_2012_Evolutionary_Applications.pdf
Description
Summary:Biodiversity is increasingly subjected to human-induced changes of the environment. To persist, populations continually have to adapt to these often stressful changes including pollution and climate change. Genetic erosion in small populations, owing to fragmentation of natural habitats, is expected to obstruct such adaptive responses: (i) genetic drift will cause a decrease in the level of adaptive genetic variation, thereby limiting evolutionary responses; (ii) inbreeding and the concomitant inbreeding depression will reduce individual fitness and, consequently, the tolerance of populations to environmental stress. Importantly, inbreeding generally increases the sensitivity of a population to stress, thereby increasing the amount of inbreeding depression. As adaptation to stress is most often accompanied by increased mortality (cost of selection), the increase in the cost of inbreeding under stress is expected to severely hamper evolutionary adaptive processes. Inbreeding thus plays a pivotal role in this process and is expected to limit the probability of genetically eroded populations to successfully adapt to stressful environmental conditions. Consequently, the dynamics of small fragmented populations may differ considerably from large nonfragmented populations. The resilience of fragmented populations to changing and deteriorating environments is expected to be greatly decreased. Alleviating inbreeding depression, therefore, is crucial to ensure population persistence.

Similar Items