Details of Award
NERC Reference : NER/A/S/2003/00461
Selection in a complex world: reconciling predicted and observed responses to natural selection.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor JM Pemberton, University of Edinburgh, Inst of Evolutionary Biology
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor L Kruuk, University of Edinburgh, Sch of Biological Sciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor M Crawley, Imperial College London, Biology
- Grant held at:
- University of Edinburgh, Inst of Evolutionary Biology
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Terrestrial
- ENRIs:
- Pollution and Waste
- Biodiversity
- Science Topics:
- Population Genetics/Evolution
- Conservation Ecology
- Population Ecology
- Abstract:
- Observations ranging from Darwin's pigeons to the latest elite Holstein dairy cow clearly demonstrate the power of artificial selection. Responses to selection in nature are much less predictable. In fact, in a series of long-term studies of individuals in natural animal populations, strong selection on inherited characteristics often suggests that there should be a substantial response to selection, but we see no change or even change in the opposite direction to that predicted. In recent years, several explanations for this failure have emerged, many of which invoke environmental variation as the main complicating factor. Specifically, environmental variation may be causing us to overestimate the extent to which characteristics are inherited, it may be causing us to overestimate the strength of selection and it may be masking the response to selection. In addition, there may be further complexities that we have as yet failed to take into account due to the fact that the different characteristics of an organism are under simultaneous selection and may also be genetically correlated, due to the possibility that the expression of genetic variation varies with environmental variation, and due to the complexities of measuring selection when the dynamics of a population are taken into account. We plan to investigate these issues in an individually-monitored population of Soay sheep on St. Kilda, where the population size, and hence food availability and parasite load, vary from year to year. We will be using analysis techniques which have only recently been developed or applied to natural populations.
- NERC Reference:
- NER/A/S/2003/00461
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Standard Grants Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Standard Grant
This grant award has a total value of £418,421
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - T&S | Total - Staff | Total - Other Costs | Total - Equipment | Total - Indirect Costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £117,522 | £153,015 | £71,311 | £6,185 | £70,386 |
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