How metapopulation dynamics shape evolutionary inferences from resurrection ecology

Abstract

In the context of global change, such as climate change, resurrection ecology—where ancestors and descendants are phenotyped in a common environment—has recently emerged as a powerful method for characterizing evolution. This approach has been applied across diverse organisms, provided they possess a dormant stage in their life cycle. While limitations have been raised (e.g., the impact of propagule storage on phenotypes), methodological solutions have also been developed. Here, we identify metapopulation dynamics and within-population selection as a potential driver of evolutionary change in resurrection ecology studies. Using a simple population genetic model, we show how allele frequencies can change with population age. Second, we propose a method to disentangle the evolutionary effects of metapopulation dynamics from those driven by external factors such as climate change. The method is based on the analysis of a set of populations at the initial sampling time and a new, independent set of populations after a given period, moving beyond from the classical “ancestor-descendant” paired approach.