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Evolutionary biology is under-pinned by an elegant framework of theoretical models that predict the dynamics of within-population change.

Testing this theory empirically is challenging, but I aim to show here how long-term, individual-based studies of wild populations offer unparalleled opportunities for doing so.

I explore our current understanding of the theory’s fundamental ingredients: levels of genetic variance, the process of natural selection, and patterns of variation in fitness in the wild.

These analyses indicate important  – and interesting – implications of the reality of natural environments for evolutionary dynamics. The talk will contain results about fairy-wrens.

This talk is a practice run for 2018 Presidents’ Award plenary at the Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology in Montpellier in August 2018, and your feedback is welcome!

Seminar hosted by Tempo and Mode: Centre for Macroevolution and Macroecology.