Research Projects

Global changes lead to alterations in the abiotic environment of many species. Understanding the response of species to such changes is of increasingly urgent importance for conservation and ecosystem management. Species extinction at trophic level may cause a significant loss of energy flow to higher trophic levels, leading to a trophic cascade. Thus, species persistence in a food chain plays a pivotal role to prevent regime shifts and ecosystem functioning. Persistence of ecological systems under climate change depends on how fast the environment is changing and on how species respond to that change. Evolution can be critical in preventing extinction and facilitating the long-term recovery of communities. Evolutionary rescue through the evolution of different life history traits could boost species dynamics. Climate-driven regime shifts possess a leading threat to ecological communities. Mathematical models to study such tipping events or recovery dynamics and their underlying mechanisms are critically important that hold the lion’s share in the field of conservation ecology. We will investigate the extreme case where evolutionary processes are much faster than their ecological counterparts. The study will exemplify how fast-slow dynamical system theory offers a clear viewpoint through which the effects of evolution on ecological dynamics can be studied. Overall, our findings will foreshadow the likely divergent but predictable outcomes for endangered ecosystems in response to changes in different biotic and abiotic factors, thus guiding improved management and adaptation.