The latest Methods in Ecology and Evolution Virtual Issue – ‘Integrating Evolution and Ecology‘ – is in honour of the late Isabelle Olivieri (1957-2016): an international, interdisciplinary and ground-breaking biologist. It was edited by Louise Johnson and James Bullock and features papers on topics she researched, and in many cases pioneered. But it might perhaps have been more difficult to find 15 Methods papers on areas outside of Isabelle’s research interests!
Isabelle was the first Professor of Population Genetics at Montpellier, a past President of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (2007-2009), and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. She spanned subject boundaries as easily as she collaborated across geographical borders. Her publications range through metapopulation and dispersal ecology, host-parasite coevolution, life history, invasive species and conservation ecology. In keeping with this breadth of interests, she also combined theory easily with experiment, and worked with a wide range of study systems from mites to Medicago.
In recognition of Isabelle’s lifelong support for women in science, ‘Integrating Evolution and Ecology‘ features predominantly female first authors. As well as championing gender equality, Isabelle lent her invaluable support to new journals such as Evolutionary Applications. She also worked for the future of our field in many ways, such as co-founding the international MEME graduate training programme in evolutionary biology. She leaves a great legacy of integrating evolution and ecology, which we celebrate with this Virtual Issue.
‘Integrating Evolution and Ecology‘ is divided into four sections. These cover some of the areas that Professor Olivieri was most active in during her career. The first section – Selection – includes papers on experimental evolution, local adaptation, sexual selection metrics, and parent-offspring interactions. Next, we have a set of articles on Population Biology. In this section, there are articles on integral projection models, trait dynamics, stochastic population dynamics, and small populations with overlapping generations.
In the second half of the Virtual Issue, we move on to Dispersal and Metapopulations. You can find papers covering dispersal projections, population genetics analyses, landscape demogenetics, and eco-evolutionary dynamics in this section. We finish with a look at Communities. Our final three articles explore community assembly and invasion, developing SNP markers for multiple species, and integrating population genetics and community ecology.
All of the articles in Integrating Evolution and Ecology will be freely available for a limited time, no subscription required.
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