In light of evolution: interdisciplinary challenges in food, health, and the environment

‘‘Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution’’ Theodosius Dobzhansky (1973) History plays a fundamental role in biology. Theodosius Dobzhansky’s now famous quote can be viewed not only as a claim for the explanatory power of the evolutionary process, but also as a proclamation of the importance of recognizing the deep history of life itself. But history plays another, eminently pragmatic, role. The human histories of the various subdisciplines of biology have strongly shaped their progress and practical implementation. Combining these perspectives, it is apparent that while evolution itself is widely regarded as a uniting principle in biology, its lessons and utility have often arisen repeatedly but at different times and in different forms in various subdisciplines. Climate change, emerging disease, biotic invasion, and food security are central concerns facing humankind, each with important evolutionary dimensions. Evolutionary expertise and strategies in these areas have arisen largely independently sometimes quickly, with considerable support and effectiveness, and sometimes gradually, with hesitation and mixed success. Regardless, the authors of the present volume hold a shared perspective that, like our own history, the history of life is still being written and an evolutionary perspective is as relevant to our future as it is to our past. This special issue is inspired by a desire to both overcome and monopolize upon the largely independent histories of evolutionary perspectives in various applied fields and in so doing foster a common dialog of applied evolution. What are the underlying evolutionary commonalities and differences of such diverse challenges as: 1 Immigration and invasions of pests and pathogens? 2 The emergence of genotype–environment mismatch and its influence on individual and population health? 3 Evolution of virulence and of antibiotic and pesticide resistance? 4 The sustainability of exploited populations and biologic diversity? How might these evolutionary challenges themselves interact in the context of broader global change? What strategies and lessons can be co-opted to foster successes across disciplines? Faced with such complex challenges and interdependencies, a strategic first step toward the long-term management and resolution of these biologic issues is to bring leading researchers together from these traditionally disparate fields to share insights into the problems, successes, failures, and new directions of one another’s disciplines. Toward this goal, we convened a scientific summit at Heron Island, Australia in January 2010, drawing academics, professional researchers, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students from five continents. The meeting, entitled ‘Interdisciplinary Solutions to Evolutionary Challenges in Food, Health and the Environment’, built upon the contributors’ shared conviction that an evolutionary perspective can provide a unifying foundation for addressing humanity’s pressing biologic concerns and that it is imprudent to ignore these productive approaches when educating new practitioners (e.g., Nesse et al. 2010). Two main evolutionary perspectives emerged that appeared to have the most leverage. The first is a retrospective view and considers how past evolution contributes to modern functional ‘mismatches’ of organisms’ traits to rapidly changing environments (Gluckman et al. 2009). The second focuses on contemporary evolution (sensu Hendry and Kinnison 1999) and emphasizes the lability of life in the face of current and future changes (Carroll et al. 2007). Both of these perspectives are important and complementary within an eco-evolutionary framework (sensu Fussmann et al. 2007; Kinnison and Hairston 2007; Pelletier et al. 2009) that considers reciprocal feedbacks between evolutionary processes, genetic variation, individual performance, and ecological dynamics. Hence, although fields like conservation, human health, and agriculture have often shifted between the historical and the contemporary, it was clear that in many cases practitioners would benefit from viewing circumstances from both perspectives. The summit was very successful in fostering new interactions between practitioners, who were asking similar types of questions but in very different fields. For example, the environmental biologists quickly embraced the concept of ‘evolutionary mismatch’, which was introduced by medical participants. Likewise, we considered how resistance management strategies for crops, which Evolutionary Applications ISSN 1752-4571