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The value of long-term ecological research for evolutionary insights

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 8, pages 1584–1592 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Scientists must have an integrative understanding of ecology and evolution across spatial and temporal scales to predict how species will respond to global change. Although comprehensively investigating these processes in nature is challenging, the infrastructure and data from long-term ecological research networks can support cross-disciplinary investigations. We propose using these networks to advance our understanding of fundamental evolutionary processes and responses to global change. For ecologists, we outline how long-term ecological experiments can be expanded for evolutionary inquiry, and for evolutionary biologists, we illustrate how observed long-term ecological patterns may motivate new evolutionary questions. We advocate for collaborative, multi-site investigations and discuss barriers to conducting evolutionary work at network sites. Ultimately, these networks offer valuable information and opportunities to improve predictions of species’ responses to global change.

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Fig. 1: Global LTERNs provide unique opportunities to study the complex evolutionary patterns that are revealed over longer timescales.
Fig. 2: Examples of published studies from global LTERNs and potential evolutionary inquiries.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Shaw for thoughtful feedback. This study was supported by the National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology (award number 2110351).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Jennifer M. Cocciardi

    Present address: Department of Biology, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA

  2. Katherine Toll

    Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Jennifer M. Cocciardi & Meghan L. Avolio

  2. Department of Biostatistics, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Ava M. Hoffman

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA

    Diego F. Alvarado-Serrano

  4. Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Jill Anderson

  5. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Meghan Blumstein & David L. Des Marais

  6. Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Emma L. Boehm, Lana G. Bolin & Jennifer A. Lau

  7. Department of Ecology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA

    Israel T. Borokini

  8. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Gideon S. Bradburd & Mia M. Howard

  9. Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Haley A. Branch

  10. Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Lars A. Brudvig & Katherine Toll

  11. Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Yanni Chen

  12. Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Scott L. Collins & Kenneth D. Whitney

  13. Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Diana Gamba

  14. Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Jornada Basin LTER Program, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA

    Niall P. Hanan

  15. Department of Biological Sciences, Fordham University, New York, NY, USA

    Joseph Jaros

  16. Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Thomas E. Juenger

  17. Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, USA

    Nicholas J. Kooyers

  18. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Ezra J. Kottler

  19. Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Mitra Menon

  20. Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    David A. Moeller

  21. Department of Biology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA, USA

    Thomas J. Mozdzer

  22. Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Seema N. Sheth

  23. Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Melinda Smith

  24. Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA

    Mark C. Ungerer

  25. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA

    Megan L. Vahsen

  26. Biology Department, Davidson College, Davidson, NC, USA

    Susana M. Wadgymar

  27. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Amy Waananen

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Contributions

J.M.C., A.M.H. and M.L.A. led the writing of the manuscript. All authors conceptualized the manuscript, contributed to writing and editing it and approved the submitted version.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jennifer M. Cocciardi or Meghan L. Avolio.

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Nature Ecology & Evolution thanks Ellen Welti, Beth Reinke and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Table 1. Information on global LTERNs.

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Cocciardi, J.M., Hoffman, A.M., Alvarado-Serrano, D.F. et al. The value of long-term ecological research for evolutionary insights. Nat Ecol Evol 8, 1584–1592 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02464-y

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