Ideas in Ecology and Evolution

Teaching Post-Secondary Students in Ecology and Evolution: Strategies for Early-Career Researchers

Graham Raby — 2020-03-23

Teaching can be a rewarding, yet challenging, experience for early career researchers (ECRs) in fields like ecology and evolution. Much of this challenge arises from the reality that ECRs in ecology and evolution typically receive little, if any, pedagogical training or advice on how to balance teaching, research (which can include extended field work), and other demands on their time. Here, we aim to provide accessible, pragmatic advice for ECRs in ecology and evolution who are given the opportunity to teach (as instructor of record). The advice is based on the authors’ collective experiences teaching in ecology and evolution as ECRs and is meant to help ECRs address two challenges: a) balancing the demands of teaching against one’s research, service, and personal life, and b) being effective in the classroom while doing so. The guidance we provide includes practical steps to take when teaching for the first time, including carefully refining the syllabus (course planning), adopting ‘non-traditional’ teaching methods, and taking advantage of free teaching resources. We also discuss a range of ‘soft skills’ to consider including guarding against imposter syndrome (i.e., self-doubt and fear of being exposed as a fraud), managing expectations, being empathetic, compassionate, authentic, and fostering an inclusive classroom. Lastly, we emphasize the need to focus on developing students’ critical thinking skills, integrating research and teaching where possible, and setting limits on class preparation time to maintain balance with your research and personal life. Collectively, we hope the examples provided herein offer a useful guide to ECRs new to teaching.

A paradigm for the evolution of human features: Apes trapped on barren volcanic islands

Allan George Krill — 2020-01-31

The aquatic ape hypothesis for human evolution can account for all the traits that distinguish humans from chimpanzees. This scientific paradigm has been considered impossible. It would require that human ancestors maintained a semiaquatic lifestyle for millions of years, whereas hominin fossils indicate relatively dry terrestrial environments. Here I propose a marine aquatic evolution that is speculative, but compatible with all the fossil and genetic evidence. In this hypothesis, hominins evolved from chimpanzee-like apes that became stranded on proto-Bioko — new volcanic islands with no terrestrial foods available. The apes were forced to eat shellfish and seaweed. From wading in water on two legs to obtain food, their bodies evolved to become bipedal. Naked skin, blubber, and protruding noses were also aquatic adaptations. Brain-size increase resulted from marine fatty acid DHA. Some of these hominins escaped to mainland Africa and their bipedal descendants are recorded at the famous fossil sites. The volcanic islands grew and evolved into Bioko, and the hominins that remained there evolved into Homo sapiens. They gave up their marine diet and semiaquatic habitat after food became available on the evolving island. Then, during one of the low sea-level stands in the Pleistocene epoch, humans walked to the mainland on the emergent Bioko land bridge. Unlike earlier aquatic ape ideas, the Bioko scenario can be tested by DNA. If the human genome includes a retrovirus that is otherwise only found in endemic animals on Bioko, it would show that our ancestors came from there. Unfortunately, Bioko and west-central Africa are not interesting to traditional paleoanthropologists, because they do not contain fossils.

Have we already tested the aquatic ape hypothesis?

Yuichi Nakazawa — 2020-01-31

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The third dimension: How fire-related research can advance ecology and evolutionary biology

Byron Lamont — 2020-12-21

Most of the Earth’s vegetated surface is fireprone but the relevance of fire in understanding how nature works is not always recognized. We aim to show that, by adding the fire dimension to observations on biological phenomena, interpretations can be im-proved; how fire-related research can be used to answer ‘fundamental’ questions in ecology; and how theories/models developed for fireprone ecosystems can be applied to advancing disturbance ecology, biogeography and evolutionary biology more generally. We compiled lists from the world-wide web of the most highly cited papers in fire ecology, and examined papers that had been approached from multiple viewpoints, including fire. We show that great advances over the last 20 years have been made in our understanding of the pivotal role of fire as a driver of many ecological processes and a powerful selective agent/evolutionary trigger among biota. We document 21 sets of observations originally interpreted in the context of the two traditional dimensions, prevailing environment and biotic interactions, but can also be shown to have a strong, if not dominant, historical link to fire. We note that fire-related research is able to address 55 of the 100 questions considered ‘fundamental’ in ecology and that many have already received some attention in fireprone ecosystems. We show how theories/ models that had their origins in fireprone systems can be applied to other disturbance-prone systems and thus have wide application in ecology and evolutionary biology. Fire and other disturbances should be included as variables in research about possible critical environmental and biotic constraints controlling ecosystem function in general. Adding this third dimension to research endeavours greatly enriches our understanding of how nature works at the global scale in an era where ecosystems are changing rapidly and novel species-environmental interactions are emerging.

A uniquely fire creature, a uniquely fire planet

Stephen Pyne — 2020-12-21

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