Hungarian–Norwegian Bilateral Cooperation: Research Conference & Knowledge Exchange15 February 2018 (10:30-10:50), Budapest

Keynote speech – evolutionary biologyExample of an existing collaboration and highlight of recent research results

A Keynote

Professor Nils Chr Stenseth, University of OsloProfessor Eörs Szathmáry, MTA Ecological Research Center, Tihany

Hungarian–Norwegian Bilateral Cooperation: Research Conference & Knowledge Exchange15 February 2018 (10:30-10:50), Budapest

From Microprocesses to MacrophenomenaA case of transnational coevolution of coevolution research

A Keynote

Professor Nils Chr Stenseth, University of OsloProfessor Eörs Szathmáry, MTA Ecological Research Center, Tihany

Scientific Excellence

Widening European Participation

A bit of personal history

Professor Nils Chr. Stenseth, University of Oslo

Visited Hungary/Budapest in the early 1970’s (during the IBP program): got very impressed by the biological sciences being done in Hungary

Professor Eörs Szathmáry, Eötvös Loránd University

Paid several visits to Norway: high appreciation for CEES

University of Sussex (UK) – John Maynard Smith

Nils Chr. Stenseth, University of Oslo Worked on sex-ratio theory

Maynard Smith, J & Stenseth, NC 1978 On the evolutionary stability of the female-biased sex ratio in the wood lemming (Myopus schisticolor): the effect of inbreeding. Heredity, 41, 205–214.

Worked on the Red Queen HypothesisStenseth, NC & Maynard Smith, J 1984 Coevolution in Ecosystems: Red Queen Evolution or Stasis? Evolution, 38, 870-880.

Common roots

“How can it be that extinction occurs random with respect to age [of a species] but nonrandomly with respect to ecology?”

Van Valen 1973, Evolutionary Theory

The Red Queen Hypothesis

N.C. Stenseth (CEES, Oslo, Norway): “On evolutionary ecology and the Red Queen’s Hypothesis”

Evolutionary advances in one species will deteriorate the selective conditions experienced by other species, causing communities to continuously evolve even in absence of abiotic change

The Red Queen Hypothesis

N.C. Stenseth (CEES, Oslo, Norway): “On evolutionary ecology and the Red Queen’s Hypothesis”

The Red Queen hypothesis was groundbreakingin that it explicitly linked ecology with evolution, and invoked microevolutionary processes to explain macroevolutionary patterns.

The Red Queen Hypothesis

Bringing ecology and evolution together

N.C. Stenseth (CEES, Oslo, Norway): “On evolutionary ecology and the Red Queen’s Hypothesis”

Vancouver 1980

Stenseth, N.C. & Maynard Smith, J. 1984. Coevolution in ecosystems: Red Queen evolution or stasis? Evolution 38, 870-880.

Modelling the Red Queen Hypothesis

N.C. Stenseth (CEES, Oslo, Norway): “On evolutionary ecology and the Red Queen’s Hypothesis”

Stenseth and Maynard Smith 1984

Modelling the Red Queen Hypothesis

N.C. Stenseth (CEES, Oslo, Norway): “On evolutionary ecology and the Red Queen’s Hypothesis”

Stenseth and Maynard Smith 1984

Modelling the Red Queen Hypothesis

… main conclusion is that an ecosystem in a physically constant environmentmay be in one of two evolutionary modes:

(i) Red Queen, or steady state of evolutionary change, or

(ii) evolutionary stasis …

A decision as to which mode has been prevalent in the past will depend on a study of the fossil record.

N.C. Stenseth (CEES, Oslo, Norway): “On evolutionary ecology and the Red Queen’s Hypothesis”

Common roots

University of Sussex (UK) – John Maynard Smith

Nils Chr. Stenseth, University of Oslo Worked on sex-ratio theory

Maynard Smith, J & Stenseth, NC 1978 On the evolutionary stability of the female-biased sex ratio in the wood lemming (Myopus schisticolor): the effect of inbreeding. Heredity, 41, 205–214.

Worked on the Red Queen HypothesisStenseth, NC & Maynard Smith, J 1984 Coevolution in Ecosystems: Red Queen Evolution or Stasis? Evolution, 38, 870-880.

Eörs Szathmáry, MTA Ecological Research Center, Tihany and Eötvös University, Budapest Worked on models of early evolution

Szathmáry, E & Maynard Smith, J 1997 From replicators to reproducers: The first major transitions leading to life. J. theor. Biol. 187, 555-571.

Worked on major transitions in evolutionMaynard Smith, J & Szathmáry, E 1995 The Major Transitions in Evolution.Freeman, Oxford.

Common roots

The major transitions (1995)

Joining forces – at CEES

Eörs Szathmáry came to Oslo

Horizon in Molecular Life Science (MLS) in Oslo in 2012 (Sept. 24-25): “From Darwin to 1953 – and beyond” – A joint Nordic meeting held at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters:

Eörs Szathmáry: “Not much of Molecular Life Sciences (or Genomics) makes sense except in the light of ecology and evolution”

Darwin Day 2014: The major transitions in evolution: From the origin of life to the emergence of language:

Eörs Szathmáry: “Bayes, Hebb and Darwin: toward a truly Darwinian view of the brain”

More work on the Red Queen Hypothesis and coevolution in multispecies communities

The importance of symmetry

Eörs Szathmáry refereed this submission to PNAS Together with colleagues, Eörs Szathmáry wrote a commentary article on this PNAS paper:de Vladar HP, Santos M & Szathmáry E 2017 Grand Views of Evolution Trends Ecol Evol,

32, 324-334.

More work on the Red Queen Hypothesis and coevolution in multispecies communities

A major contribution of this work is that we are able to decompose the overall driver of changes at the macro level (such as interconnectedness) into three components: (i) ecologically driven change, (ii) evolutionarily driven change, and (iii) environmentally driven change.

Joining forces – in Oslo and Budapest

Working on complementary questions relating to combining ecology and

evolution

Joining forces – in Oslo and Budapest

The vexing problem of open-endedness

Weak: New phenotypesgenerated indefinitely

Strong: Evolutionary noveltiesand innovations generatedindefinitely

Ultimate: major transitionsappear without obvious upperbound

Joining forces – in Oslo and Budapest

Relations between evolution and learning theory

Associative learning

Reinforcement learning

Deep learning

“Down to Earth”: Key players in the food web

Inter-specific interaction networks

Complexity! hard to understandhard to predict

Key nodes? positiontraitsfunctionsinternal structurespatial behaviourvariabilityevolution

Predictive food web results?Efficient management?

Jordán, F. 2009. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 364:1733-1741.

“Devil in the details”: Ecological hierarchy

Social networks connect individualsFood webs connect populations

Food webs are networks of networks

Vertical mechanisms are understudied(e.g. predation pressure -> prey cohesion)

A multi-level network view integratesdisciplines

Scotti, M., Ciocchetta, F. and Jordán, F. 2013. Journal of Complex Networks, 1: 1-23.

A unified biology