The effect of sexual selection on adaptation and extinction under increasing temperatures

Strong sexual selection has been reported to both enhance and hinder the adaptive capacity and persistence of populations when exposed to novel environments. Consequently, how sexual selection influences population adaption and persistence under stress remains widely debated. Here we present two empirical investigations of the fitness consequences of sexual selection on populations of the Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella, exposed to stable or gradually increasing temperatures. When faced with increasing temperatures strong sexual selection was associated with both increased fecundity and offspring survival compared to populations experiencing weak sexual selection, suggesting sexual selection acts to drive adaptive evolution by favouring beneficial alleles. Strong sexual selection did not, however, delay extinction when the temperature became excessively high. By manipulating individuals’ mating opportunities during fitness assays we were able to assess the effect of multiple mating independently from the effect of population-level sexual selection, and found that polyandry has a positive effect on both fecundity and offspring survival under increasing temperatures in those populations evolving with weak sexual selection. Within stable temperatures there were some benefits from strong sexual selection but these were not consistent across the entire experiment, possibly reflecting changing costs and benefits of sexual selection under stabilising and directional selection. These results indicate that sexual selection can provide a buffer against climate change and increase adaptation rates within a continuously changing environment. These positive effects of sexual selection may however be too small to protect populations and delay extinction when environmental changes are relatively rapid

Sustainable engineering master module - Insights from three cohorts of European engineering team

Mobility and transnational migration are current social developments among the population of the European Union. These developments in both society-at-large and companies, linked to the challenges of sustainability, lead to new requirements for working in the European Union. Teaching and learning in higher education needs to adapt to these requirements. As a result, new and innovative teaching and learning practices in higher education should provide competencies for transnational teamwork in the curriculum of tomorrow's engineers in order to ensure their competitiveness in the job market. A transnational project-oriented teaching and learning framework, which provides the future key competencies for young engineers was implemented in the course European Engineering Team (EET). Engineering students from four countries participated in a new project-based course that focused on the development of innovative and sustainable products and opportunities. The goal of this paper is to present results and lessons learnt from three cohorts of EET

Data from: Age, experience and sex – do female bulb mites prefer young mating partners?

In species where advancing sire age is associated with decreased progeny fitness, female resistance to mating with old partners can be expected to evolve. In polyandrous species, such resistance may be contingent on female mating experience: virgins should be relatively indiscriminate to ensure egg fertility, whereas non-virgins can be expected to base their re-mating decisions on the age of their previous versus potential new partners, and ‘trade up’ if previously mated with old males. Here, we tested these predictions using a promiscuous and relatively long-living bulb mite (Rhizoglyphus robini), in which old sire age is associated with decreased fecundity of daughters. In a fully factorial design, we applied two male treatments: young and old, and three female treatments: virgin, previously mated to an old male and previously mated to a young male. Consistent with earlier studies, we observed a reduced mating success of old males. However, we found no support for attributing this result to female discrimination, as female behaviour in response to male mounting attempts was not affected by the age of the suitor, or by its interaction with the age of the female’s previous mate. Interestingly, females were passive during 93% of male mounting attempts observed, suggesting that once they are located by a male, they exert little control over copulation. Old males had lower mate searching activity and were less efficient in obtaining matings (lower success rate per mounting attempt), suggesting a decreased mate securing ability due to aging. Overall, our results suggest that in bulb mites, male ability to secure mates declines with age, whereas they do not support the prediction that females actively discriminate against old partners

Male age and female preferences in bulb mite

Male age and female preferences in bulb mit