Biodiversity dynamics and evolution: how species rise, become domesticated and adapt to environment

The current threats to biodiversity are multiple. To conserve biodiversity and the countless services it provides, we need to understand how biodiversity was formed and which factors influence its dynamics. The theory of evolution by natural selection provides an extremely powerful paradigm for understanding why the living world is the way it is, for understanding how biodiversity is formed and what its dynamics are, and for understanding how populations manage to adapt or not to a changing environment. The sciences of ecology and evolution are also essential to understand the extent and consequences of the current biodiversity crisis, particularly for human societies. Climate change, but also habitat destruction, pollution and invasive species, are responsible for a rapid decline in biodiversity, which will quickly produce serious consequences on human societies through the decline of ecosystem services that we derive from biodiversity.