About This Project

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Humans are rapidly changing ecosystems globally. Although many of these changes - such as deforestation, overfishing, and invasive species introductions - disrupt and erode ecological communities, some human impacts can bolster local flora and fauna (e.g., Donihue et al. 2013). In order to survive in changing circumstances, plants and animals must adapt to their shifting context, and indeed, some of the fastest recorded rates of evolution occur due to humans (Palumbi et al. 2001, Hendry et al. 2008). As plant and animal species adapt, they may initiate rippling effects through food webs that could lead to changes in ecological processes and environmental services.

I intend to experimentally explore these possibilities across islands in the Greek Archipelago.

Humans have lived in the Greek island landscape for thousands of years. Over this time, the inhabitants grazed goats, built walls, and introduced myriad species to the islands. The native species that remain have had to adapt to their human cohabitants. Lizards, for example, are negatively affected by the loss of vegetation from intensive goat grazing and by predation from cats brought as pets by humans. However, not all human changes have been negative. Lizard populations are concentrated on stone walls that provide refugia, fine thermal gradients, and denser insect populations. If lizards are adapting to life on these walls, as my preliminary data suggest, theory predicts that some of those adaptations could have cascading effects on other species and processes in the ecosystem (Schmitz 2010). I propose to first test whether lizards are indeed adapting to human influence, and second, to assess the effects any adaptations might have on the ecosystem as a whole.

What is the significance of this project?

In the face of rapid global change, ecologists are being called to make predictions about the fate of ecological communities. Species that can adapt may be more resilient than previously acknowledged, but many questions remain before we can make these predictions. Specifically, my research addresses several fundamental questions in ecology, evolution, and conservation biology in the Greek Archipelago:
1) Can species adapt to human land use?
2) If so, how quickly?
3) What traits tend to change and what traits facilitate change?
4) Are these adaptations predictable?

Answering these questions will provide valuable insight for ecology, evolution, and conservation.

What are the goals of the project?

With funding from backers on experiment.com, I will:

1) Initiate the described island manipulation to directly test whether traditional human land use causes behavioral and morphological adaptations in P. erhardii.

2) Monitor this experiment for no less than three years.

3) Update backers on the progress and findings of my research.

4) Submit findings to peer-reviewed journals for publication.