The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of populations are driven by both demographic and hereditary processes.  Yet ecology and evolution have historically been separate fields of study.  Our research addresses a variety of fundamental questions concerned with how demographic and hereditary processes unfold together, particularly in populations threatened with extinction in changing environments.

Selected publications in this research area

• Gomulkiewicz, R., and R.D. Holt. .1995. When does evolution by natural selection prevent extinction? Evolution 49:201-207.
• Holt, R.D., and R. Gomulkiewicz. 1997. How does immigration influence local adaptation? A reexamination of a familiar paradigm. The American Naturalist 149:563-572.
• Holt, R.D., and R. Gomulkiewicz. 1997. The evolution of species’ niches: a population dynamic perspective. Pages 25-50 in H.G. Othmer, F.R. Adler, M.A. Lewis, & J.C. Dalton, eds. Case studies in mathematical modeling – ecology, physiology, and cell biology. Prentice-Hall, New York.
• Secker, J., R. Gomulkiewicz, and M. McPeek, 1998. Interstellar transport and local establishment dynamics of space-borne propagules. In: Proceedings of SPIE: Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology. Vol. 3441. R.B. Hoover, ed. pp. 290-300.
• Gomulkiewicz, R., R.D. Holt, and M. Barfield.   1999. The effects of density dependence and immigration on adaptation and niche evolution in a black-hole sink environment. Theoretical Population Biology 55: 283-296.
• Lofaro, T. and R. Gomulkiewicz. 1999. Adaptation versus migration in demographically unstable populations. Journal of Mathematical Biology 38: 571-584.
• Holt, R.D., R. Gomulkiewicz, and M. Barfield. 2003. The phenomenology of niche evolution via quantitative traits in a black-hole sink: A mechanism for punctuated evolution? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. B 270:215-224.
• Holt, R.D., and R. Gomulkiewicz. 2004. Conservation implications of niche conservatism and evolution in heterogeneous environments. In Evolutionary Conservation Biology, eds. Ferriere R, Dieckmann U & Couvet D, pp. 244-264. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Holt, R.D., M. Barfield, and R. Gomulkiewicz. 2004. Temporal variation can facilitate niche evolution in harsh sink environments. The American Naturalist 164:187-2004.
• Holt, R. D., M. Barfield, and R. Gomulkiewicz. 2005. Theories of niche conservatism and evolution: could exotic species be potential tests? In Species invasions: insights into ecology, evolution, and biogeography. D. F. Sax, J. J. Stachowicz, and S. D. Gaines (eds.), pp. 259-290. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.
• Sokurenko, E. V., R. Gomulkiewicz, and D. E. Dykhuizen. 2006. Source-sink dynamics of virulence evolution. Nature Microbiology 4:548-555.
• Gomulkiewicz, R., and D. Houle. 2009. Demographic and Genetic Constraints on Evolution. The American Naturalist 174:E218-E229.
• Gomulkiewicz, R., R. D. Holt, M. Barfield, and S. L. Nuismer. 2010. Genetics, adaptation, and invasion in harsh environments. Evolutionary Applications 3:97-108.
• Barfield, M., R. D. Holt, and R. Gomulkiewicz. 2011. Evolution in stage-structured populations. The American Naturalist 177:397–409. doi: 10.1086/658903.
• Baskett, M.L., and R. Gomulkiewicz. 2011. Introgressive hybridization as a mechanism for species rescue. Theoretical Ecology 4:223–239.
• Kremer, A., G. Bohrer, J. Bridle, S. Gerber, R. Gomulkiewicz, F. Guillaume, E. Klein, A. Kuparinen, R. Nathan, K. Ritland, J. J. Robledo-Arnuncio, O. Ronce, S. Schueler. 2012. Long distance gene flow and adaptation of forest trees to rapid climate change. Ecology Letters 15:378-392.
• Gomulkiewicz, R., and R. G. Shaw. 2013. Evolutionary rescue beyond the models. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 368, doi: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0093.
• Gomulkiewicz, R., S.M. Krone, and C.H. Remien.  In press. Evolutionary and the duration of a doomed population. Evolutionary Applications. [preprint – pdf 334k]