Applied Maths Seminar: Tanaka -- Extinction or adaptation in a changing environment (and implications for microbial evolution and the evolution of recombination)

Dear all, 

Our upcoming AM seminar is held next Wed 26 April at 1pm in F11 Chemistry Lecture
Theatre 4.  Our speaker is Mark Tanaka (UNSW).  

Talk details follow below: 

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Title: Extinction or adaptation in a changing environment (and implications for
microbial evolution and the evolution of recombination) 

Abstract: What forces drive populations to extinction? Mathematical biologists have
explored a number of mechanisms that increase the probability of extinction in small
populations - especially those facing environmental change.  Populations can undergo
adaptation to escape extinction, in a process known as evolutionary rescue.  By studying
population models we show that Darwinian evolution can, ironically, reduce the chance of
surviving environmental change.  The extinction risk is unexpectedly more pronounced in
moderate to large populations.  Genetic linkage is at the core of these effects.  Our
results therefore have implications for the evolution of sex and recombination.  They
also raise questions about whether and how asexual species - e.g.  bacterial species -
can go extinct.  We have begun to explore these questions with population models.
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An ongoing list of AM seminars is posted here: 
https://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/SemConf/Applied.html 


See you there, 

Ian