Unifying macroecology and macroevolution to answer fundamental questions about biodiversity

Brian Mcgill , Jonathan Chase , Joaquin Hortal (1) , Isaac Overcast , Andrew Rominger , James Rosindell (2) , Paulo a V Borges (3) , Brent C. Emerson (4) , Rampal Etienne (5) , Michael Hickerson (6) , D. Luke Mahler , François Massol (7) , Angela Mcgaughran , Pedro Neves (8) , Christine Parent , Jairo Patiño , Megan Ruffley , Catherine Wagner , Rosemary Gillespie (9)

1 Department of Biogeography and Global Change
2 Faculty of Biological Sciences
3 IPREM - Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les materiaux
4 BIO - School of Biological Sciences
5 Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary studies [Groningen]
6 Genetics, Evolutionary Biology, Bioinformatics
7 Evo-Eco-Paléo (EEP) - Évolution, Écologie et Paléontologie (Evo-Eco-Paleo) - UMR 8198
8 Instituto Politécnico de Tomar
9 Essig Museum of Entomology

The study of biodiversity started as a single unified field that spanned both ecology and evolution and both macro and micro phenomena. But over the 20th century, major trends drove ecology and evolution apart and pushed an emphasis towards the micro perspective in both disciplines. Macroecology and macroevolution re-emerged as self-consciously distinct fields in the 1970s and 1980s, but they remain largely separated from each other. Here, we argue that despite the challenges, it is worth working to combine macroecology and macroevolution. We present 25 fundamental questions about biodiversity that are answerable only with a mixture of the views and tools of both macroecology and macroevolution.

Domaines: Ecologie, Environnement; Biodiversité; Systématique, phylogénie et taxonomie

Brian Mcgill, Jonathan Chase, Joaquin Hortal, Isaac Overcast, Andrew Rominger, et al.. Unifying macroecology and macroevolution to answer fundamental questions about biodiversity. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 2019, 28 (12), pp.1925-1936. ⟨10.1111/geb.13020⟩. ⟨hal-02360016⟩