Abstract
A series of important new theoretical, experimental and observational studies demonstrate that just a few immigrants can have positive immediate impacts on the evolutionary trajectory of local populations. In many cases, a low level of immigration into small populations has produced fitness benefits that are greater than those predicted by theoretical models, resulting in what has been termed 'genetic rescue'. However, the opposite result (reduced fitness) can also be associated with immigration of genetically divergent individuals. Central to our understanding of genetic rescue are complex interactions among fundamental concepts in evolutionary and population biology, including both genetic and non-genetic (environmental, behavioral and demographic) factors. Developing testable models to predict when genetic rescue is likely to occur is a daunting challenge that will require carefully controlled, multi-generation experiments as well as creative use of information from natural 'experiments'.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 489-496 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Trends in Ecology and Evolution |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2004 |
Funding
We thank Jeff Hard, Jack Hogg, Laurent Keller, and especially Fred Allendorf for helpful comments. This article was written while D.A.T. was supported by NSF (INT 0202707) and G.L. was supported by European Commission (QLK5-CT-2001–02461). R.S.W. contributed while a visiting scientist at Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| INT 0202707 | |
| European Commission | QLK5-CT-2001–02461 |
