Escape from upheavals: evolutionary potential of migratory plasticity facing climate changes

Escape from upheavals: evolutionary potential of migratory plasticity facing climate changes

Critical ambitions in evolutionary ecology are to understand how wild species will respond to climatic and environmental upheavals caused by anthropogenic impacts. Populations are postulated to respond to changing environments through phenotypic plasticity or micro-evolution in situ, or by moving elsewhere. Yet, the ways in which these responses could interact, potentially generating rapid micro-evolution of plasticity in movements, have scarcely been considered. Hence, full responses of mobile populations to rapid environmental changes cannot yet be predicted, impeding population management. In PLASTMIG I will break new ground in the nascent field of Evolutionary Movement Ecology by providing first estimates of: 1) Environmentally-induced plasticity in seasonal migration, thereby bringing new insight on environmental sensitivity of movement underlying population dynamics and distributions. 2) Quantitative genetic variation underlying such plasticity, hence providing new understanding of the potential for rapid micro-evolution of environmentally-induced movements. I will achieve these ambitious objectives by extending and applying advanced quantitative genetic statistical analyses to an exceptional multi-year dataset on free-living European shags. Available data comprise year-round field observations and pedigrees for numerous migrant and resident individuals experiencing varying environments, allowing quantification of all key effects. I will work in a leading international Centre of Excellence, ensuring outstanding scientific and career developments. PLASTMIG will thereby achieve the threefold challenge to have important scientific impact by providing new conceptual and methodological advances linking evolutionary and movement ecology; crucial societal impacts by laying key foundations for innovative conservation strategies for migrant species; and personal impacts through exceptional career training making me a leading international researcher.