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Hungarian–Norwegian Bilateral Cooperation: Research Conference & Knowledge Exchange15 February 2018 (10:30-10:50), Budapest
Keynote speech – evolutionary biologyExample of an existing collaboration and highlight of recent research results
A Keynote
Professor Nils Chr Stenseth, University of OsloProfessor Eörs Szathmáry, MTA Ecological Research Center, Tihany
Hungarian–Norwegian Bilateral Cooperation: Research Conference & Knowledge Exchange15 February 2018 (10:30-10:50), Budapest
From Microprocesses to MacrophenomenaA case of transnational coevolution of coevolution research
A Keynote
Professor Nils Chr Stenseth, University of OsloProfessor Eörs Szathmáry, MTA Ecological Research Center, Tihany
Scientific Excellence
Widening European Participation
A bit of personal history
Professor Nils Chr. Stenseth, University of Oslo
Visited Hungary/Budapest in the early 1970’s (during the IBP program): got very impressed by the biological sciences being done in Hungary
Professor Eörs Szathmáry, Eötvös Loránd University
Paid several visits to Norway: high appreciation for CEES
University of Sussex (UK) – John Maynard Smith
Nils Chr. Stenseth, University of Oslo Worked on sex-ratio theory
Maynard Smith, J & Stenseth, NC 1978 On the evolutionary stability of the female-biased sex ratio in the wood lemming (Myopus schisticolor): the effect of inbreeding. Heredity, 41, 205–214.
Worked on the Red Queen HypothesisStenseth, NC & Maynard Smith, J 1984 Coevolution in Ecosystems: Red Queen Evolution or Stasis? Evolution, 38, 870-880.
Common roots
“How can it be that extinction occurs random with respect to age [of a species] but nonrandomly with respect to ecology?”
Van Valen 1973, Evolutionary Theory
The Red Queen Hypothesis
N.C. Stenseth (CEES, Oslo, Norway): “On evolutionary ecology and the Red Queen’s Hypothesis”
Evolutionary advances in one species will deteriorate the selective conditions experienced by other species, causing communities to continuously evolve even in absence of abiotic change
The Red Queen Hypothesis
N.C. Stenseth (CEES, Oslo, Norway): “On evolutionary ecology and the Red Queen’s Hypothesis”
The Red Queen hypothesis was groundbreakingin that it explicitly linked ecology with evolution, and invoked microevolutionary processes to explain macroevolutionary patterns.
The Red Queen Hypothesis
Bringing ecology and evolution together
N.C. Stenseth (CEES, Oslo, Norway): “On evolutionary ecology and the Red Queen’s Hypothesis”
Vancouver 1980
Stenseth, N.C. & Maynard Smith, J. 1984. Coevolution in ecosystems: Red Queen evolution or stasis? Evolution 38, 870-880.
Modelling the Red Queen Hypothesis
N.C. Stenseth (CEES, Oslo, Norway): “On evolutionary ecology and the Red Queen’s Hypothesis”
Stenseth and Maynard Smith 1984
Modelling the Red Queen Hypothesis
N.C. Stenseth (CEES, Oslo, Norway): “On evolutionary ecology and the Red Queen’s Hypothesis”
Stenseth and Maynard Smith 1984
Modelling the Red Queen Hypothesis
… main conclusion is that an ecosystem in a physically constant environmentmay be in one of two evolutionary modes:
(i) Red Queen, or steady state of evolutionary change, or
(ii) evolutionary stasis …
A decision as to which mode has been prevalent in the past will depend on a study of the fossil record.
N.C. Stenseth (CEES, Oslo, Norway): “On evolutionary ecology and the Red Queen’s Hypothesis”
Common roots
University of Sussex (UK) – John Maynard Smith
Nils Chr. Stenseth, University of Oslo Worked on sex-ratio theory
Maynard Smith, J & Stenseth, NC 1978 On the evolutionary stability of the female-biased sex ratio in the wood lemming (Myopus schisticolor): the effect of inbreeding. Heredity, 41, 205–214.
Worked on the Red Queen HypothesisStenseth, NC & Maynard Smith, J 1984 Coevolution in Ecosystems: Red Queen Evolution or Stasis? Evolution, 38, 870-880.
Eörs Szathmáry, MTA Ecological Research Center, Tihany and Eötvös University, Budapest Worked on models of early evolution
Szathmáry, E & Maynard Smith, J 1997 From replicators to reproducers: The first major transitions leading to life. J. theor. Biol. 187, 555-571.
Worked on major transitions in evolutionMaynard Smith, J & Szathmáry, E 1995 The Major Transitions in Evolution.Freeman, Oxford.
Common roots
The major transitions (1995)
Joining forces – at CEES
Eörs Szathmáry came to Oslo
Horizon in Molecular Life Science (MLS) in Oslo in 2012 (Sept. 24-25): “From Darwin to 1953 – and beyond” – A joint Nordic meeting held at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters:
Eörs Szathmáry: “Not much of Molecular Life Sciences (or Genomics) makes sense except in the light of ecology and evolution”
Darwin Day 2014: The major transitions in evolution: From the origin of life to the emergence of language:
Eörs Szathmáry: “Bayes, Hebb and Darwin: toward a truly Darwinian view of the brain”
More work on the Red Queen Hypothesis and coevolution in multispecies communities
The importance of symmetry
Eörs Szathmáry refereed this submission to PNAS Together with colleagues, Eörs Szathmáry wrote a commentary article on this PNAS paper:de Vladar HP, Santos M & Szathmáry E 2017 Grand Views of Evolution Trends Ecol Evol,
32, 324-334.
More work on the Red Queen Hypothesis and coevolution in multispecies communities
A major contribution of this work is that we are able to decompose the overall driver of changes at the macro level (such as interconnectedness) into three components: (i) ecologically driven change, (ii) evolutionarily driven change, and (iii) environmentally driven change.
Joining forces – in Oslo and Budapest
Working on complementary questions relating to combining ecology and
evolution
Joining forces – in Oslo and Budapest
The vexing problem of open-endedness
Weak: New phenotypesgenerated indefinitely
Strong: Evolutionary noveltiesand innovations generatedindefinitely
Ultimate: major transitionsappear without obvious upperbound
Joining forces – in Oslo and Budapest
Relations between evolution and learning theory
Associative learning
Reinforcement learning
Deep learning
“Down to Earth”: Key players in the food web
Inter-specific interaction networks
Complexity! hard to understandhard to predict
Key nodes? positiontraitsfunctionsinternal structurespatial behaviourvariabilityevolution
Predictive food web results?Efficient management?
Jordán, F. 2009. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 364:1733-1741.
“Devil in the details”: Ecological hierarchy
Social networks connect individualsFood webs connect populations
Food webs are networks of networks
Vertical mechanisms are understudied(e.g. predation pressure -> prey cohesion)
A multi-level network view integratesdisciplines
Scotti, M., Ciocchetta, F. and Jordán, F. 2013. Journal of Complex Networks, 1: 1-23.
A unified biology