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Biodiversity is both the raw material and the ultimate product of evolution

Monday 29 March 2010

Evolution and Biodiversity: The evolutionary basis of biodiversity and its potential for adaptation to global change

Evolutionary processes are ultimate responsible for the generation and maintenance of biodiversity. However, they are rarely considered in management actions and policies aimed at preserving biodiversity and the goods and services it provides. Forthcoming policies aimed at reducing the current loss of biodiversity and facing the challenges posed by its interaction with climate change, food security or health security would benefit considerably from an explicit incorporation of current knowledge on evolutionary processes. Existing knowledge gaps and sources of uncertainty that limit the incorporation of evolutionary knowledge to biodiversity and global change policies should be identified and addressed through targeted research programs, in order to enhance the potential success of such policies.

The meeting is is an official event of the Spanish EU Presidency, organized by the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) in collaboration with the Steering Committee of EPBRS. It will discuss how science can help policy makers identify priority areas for research on the interplay between evolutionary processes and biodiversity patterns, in addition to the effect of anthropogenic pressures upon them, and will generate recommendations on research priorities within the EU.

The meeting will be organized in three thematic sessions:

1. The evolutionary basis of biodiversity: strategies to manage and preserve evolutionary processes, and their likely impact on biodiversity

2. Evolutionary responses to anthropogenic pressures, including global change

3. Evolution in complex systems and co-evolutionary networks: managing complexity in the face of uncertainty

Themetic sessions will involve the preparaton of draft recommendations in workout groups, and its discussion and adoption in a plenary sessions. They will build on the discussions and recommendations on a three-weeks electronic conference, and on preparatory keynote addresses by Scott P. Carrol (Univ. of California, Davis), R. Zardoya (MNCN-CSIC, Spain) and S. Hille (University of Applied Sciences, Vienna).