The ability of a pathogen to cause an epidemic when introduced in a new host population often relies on its ability to adapt to this new environment. Here, we give a brief overview of recent theoretical and empirical studies of such evolutionary emergence of pathogens. We discuss the effects of several ecological and genetic factors that may affect the likelihood of emergence: migration, life h...

Carneiro proposes a theory for the emergence of social complexity that draws from ecological and biological inspiration. Key to this theory is the notion of “environmental circumscription”, which posits that spatial, geographic, and social factors may induce competitive or cooperative interactions in otherwise independent social groups, resulting in acceleration in the rate of evolution of soci...

1 We examined how seed size and seedling growth rate influence recruitment success of neotropical pioneer species. We investigated the soil seed bank, and followed seedlings from emergence and establishment to the sapling stage in artificially created gaps in secondary forest on the Barro Colorado Nature Monument, Panamá. 2 To simulate microsite variation within gaps, litter addition/removal an...