Evolutionary Footprint: A Systemic Indicator in Evolution, Ecology and Conservation

ABSTRACT

The growing awareness of evolutionary responses to human‐induced environmental changes highlights the need to better understand and integrate evolutionary perspectives into life sciences and, more broadly, into biodiversity conservation. Evolutionary changes are complex and multi‐causal, operating across numerous timescales. Emerging fields such as eco‐evolutionary dynamics, genomics, and non‐genetic inheritance are substantially advancing knowledge in this area. To better integrate and value these changes, we define the concept of ‘evolutionary footprint’ as the impact of a driver on the micro‐ and macroevolutionary trajectories of a biological entity. By selecting metrics that capture changes in adaptive traits, genetic diversity, macroevolutionary processes, and phylogenetic patterns, and by interpreting the magnitude of these changes relative to natural history baselines, we provide a quantitative method for scoring evolutionary footprints. We illustrate this framework with two case studies, one concerning the evolution of a plant species in response to human‐induced pollinator decline and another addressing potential human impacts on the mammal taxon. We discuss key challenges associated with integrating multiple timescales and levels of biodiversity within the framework, as well as the difficulties of predicting evolutionary changes, accounting for non‐genetic processes, and developing the required databases. This new type of indicator may foster the integration of knowledge about evolutionary processes and eco‐evolutionary dynamics into conservation science and offer new insights and avenues for an evocentric approach to biodiversity conservation.