Comments on: Evolving guppies shape their environments

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 14:30:26 +0000

This is a very nice summary of the guppy project. Briana, this study lies within the realm of evolution because the life history changes that are associated with predation regimes are hereditary. Guppies in their natural HP and LP reaches as well as those that were transplanted were brought into common garden habitats and bred into the F2 generation. The life history differences remained, which demonstrated their genetic basis and shows that plasticity in life history is not sufficient to explain patterns. Further research suggests that there is a switching in selection pressures from survival amongst intense predation to intraspecific competition for resources in low-resource LP streams. The project will be building direct links between the ecosystem and guppy evolution to attempt to “prove” that the life history adaptations are successful strategies for acquiring resources, and also will explore whether ecology and evolution act upon each other in a feedback loop whereby guppies that become efficient at resource acquisition deplete resources, which then increases selection pressure for resources and so on. Guppies are fun to catch too!

By: Briana

Briana — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:56:04 +0000

I still don’t understand why “evolving” and “adapting” are used so interchangeably when they mean very different things. The guppies aren’t evolving in 30 generations just because they are maturing faster or showing different coloration. Humans’ average rates of sexual maturity have fluctuated considerably over thousands of years of generations, from between 9 years and about 16, depending on diet and what have you of a population. But so far it hasn’t caused any fundamental differences in our species. These guppy experiments make such weak arguments I’ve always wondered why they got so much attention. Perhaps cause the word guppy is so fun to say?

By: David Sulik

David Sulik — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:33:21 +0000

Greetings,
Use of the term “glacial pace” to denote a slow movement is inaccurate. With global warming glaciers are now moving at quite a fast pace, and faster every day!