Factors controlling evolutionary rates: determining the impact of interactions and the environment using evolutionary simulation experiments
Lead supervisor: Emily Mitchell, Department of Zoology
Co-supervisors: Euan Furness, Department of Zoology
Research proposal
The capacity for biological evolution is a principle of life that should be applicable wherever it is found in the universe; as such, understanding the factors that control rates of evolution on Earth should help to understand the factors that control rates elsewhere as well. Variation in the rate of evolution of extraterrestrial life is predicted to have significant impacts on the form that life has elsewhere in the universe (Mitchell & Madhusudhan 2025). Any impact on the form of life present in a system will have effects on the environment and, therefore, on the biosignatures produced by that life that we might expect to observe from Earth.
The rate at which organisms are able to evolve to adapt to their environment is thought, itself, to be a feature under selection during biological evolution (Crow 1994). Rapid evolution is thought to be selected for by higher rates of environmental change, including changes in the biologies of interacting animals in the environment, such as predators (the “Red Queen hypothesis”; van Valen 1973). Responses to the selection pressures could include the evolution of sexual reproduction as a mechanism for increasing genetic diversity, and/or the inhibition of asexual reproduction (Lively et al. 1990). The question remains, therefore: “Under what conditions will evolution be sufficiently rapid to produce complex life?”
These questions cannot typically be addressed through observation or direct experimentation as evolution is very slow. However, simulation studies allow for experimental evolution to be conducted over short timescales through computational methods. In this project, the student will use the pre-existing REvoSim system (Furness et al. 2023) to model rates of evolutionary change in organisms under a range of environmental conditions. REvoSim is a well-documented, pre-existing simulation tool, which has previously shown to be powerful as a tool for studying eco-evolutionary processes occurring within populations (Furness et al. 2024), and which can be used without coding experience.
The project student will use REvoSim to conduct a series of experiments to assess the relative impacts of different environmental (habitat change, ecological interactions, metabolic rate) and reproductive (sexual vs asexual) factors on rates of evolutionary change within species. The student will compare these factors to the environmental conditions present throughout geological history to make inferences about the drivers of ecological change during different time periods.
This project would be ideal for a student who is interested in ecological and/or evolutionary modelling approaches. Knowledge of palaeontology and/or exoplanets is welcome, but is not required. Experience writing code for simulation studies and/or data analysis is desired, but is not required.