“Applying evolutionary biology to address global challenges”
“We examine management approaches that attempt to either improve or undermine adaptation to modern environments by manipulating the relationships between the traits of organisms and the patterns of selection imposed by their environments. These manipulations include tools that may be widely considered evolutionary, such as selective breeding and emerging technologies in genetics, but also manipulations that are often overlooked as evolutionary, specifically manipulations of development that modify traits independent of genetic change, and altering environments in ways that can modulate selection itself… We highlight how evolutionary strategies may be used to achieve policy targets of sustainable development for improved human health, food production, natural resource use and biodiversity conservation, including how stakeholder conflicts may be reduced to achieve desired outcomes.”
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/09/10/science.1245993.full
Tbh, skimmed most of this, but there were some really interesting points and this stuck out, group vs. individual selection – “One important consequence may be greater current opportunities for artificial selection of individual traits that improve group performance while avoiding inadvertent evolution of ‘uncooperative’ individuals (8), such as those with competitive root structures in dryland field crops (115). Artificial selection for group yield in maize has produced lines with reduced male function and that bear more-vertical leaves, which reduce the shading of neighbors. Both of these traits decrease individual plant performance while enhancing group productivity (116, 117), but in the absence of strategic breeding to favor these changes directly, they have evolved only slowly, requiring 60 years to appear as unplanned responses to selection on group yield alone (118).”
