Simone Des Roches

Simone is broadly interested in how diversity within species (intraspecific variation) links ecology and evolution. She studies how natural selection in novel and unique ecosystems can change intraspecific variation through rapid adaptation, and how this variation can feedback on the ecosystem. Simone has studied eco-evolutionary dynamics in lizards and fish. Her most recent project examines how decades of climate change have caused evolution in Californian Threespine Stickleback across a latitudinal gradient. Simone’s interest in urban eco-evolutionary dynamics was initially inspired by her observation that the effect of climate change on stickleback evolution was strongly influenced by the extent of direct human modification of the environment. In her future work, Simone would like to encourage conservation and restoration that incorporates eco-evolutionary dynamics. She hopes to inspire researchers to investigate human impacts on ecology and evolution, rather than remove its influence in their experimental design.