RoL:FELS: Workshop: Reciprocal illumination between ecology and biomechanics: evolution, integration, and constraint, March 2019, Portland, Oregon

University Of California-Riverside, Riverside CA

Investigators

Abstract

To survive, animals must perform tasks within the context of their environmental conditions, and these conditions are rapidly changing across earth. Animal function is, in turn, a product of constraint, plasticity, adaptation, and other processes. Constraints can be ecological, evolutionary, developmental, or biomechanical. Thus, understanding complex phenotypes related to animal function requires an integrative approach. To accomplish this, the workshop will bring together a number of fields, from biologists focused on genomics and evolutionary ecology, to biomechanists. This workshop falls under the Rules of Life as it explores how complex phenotypes respond to ecological shifts, resulting in plastic and evolutionary responses. How this occurs is critical for determining if/how animals and plants will survive over the coming years. The results of this workshop will be shared with a broad audience (including the general public). The topic of the workshop will be highlighted as a main discussion topic for upper grades (8-12). In general, the theme of "How Things Work and Why" is interesting to young people. The workshop seeks to stimulate curiosity so that future STEM scholars and professionals emerge. The focus on a diverse panel of participants will ensure that the scientific community is empowering the future of the field, selecting current and future leaders that will serve as role models for students from underrepresented groups in the sciences. In light of this, the participants are diverse. The quest to understand the origin and ramifications of complex phenotypes has been a goal of evolutionary biologists for a considerable amount of time. However, a major gap in this quest is the incorporation of biomechanically relevant information to understand complex traits. This is despite the fact that functionally-mediated traits are likely critical for survival. Morphological traits have been used as proxies for biomechanical traits, but this has frequently been shown to be inadequate. In addition, ecological variables are key for understanding how organisms function in their environment. This, in turn, is key for understanding evolutionary processes. What is needed to fully understand complex traits is the integration of ecology, biomechanics, and evolution. In terms of animal function, integration is persistent and important for the successful execution of tasks. How this relates to ecology is currently unknown. This workshop will bring together biomechanists, functional morphologists, evolutionary biologists, and ecologists to generate a paradigm for ecomechanics that will be the foundation for future research that will uncover key information regarding complex phenotypes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.