MCZ Lunchtime Seminar

Evolution Under Pressure: Adaptation and Population Persistence in Changing Environments

René S Shahmohamadloo
Liber Ero Postdoctoral Fellow, NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow
Washington State University

Rapid environmental change imposes strong selection on natural populations, yet adaptive evolution does not always translate into population persistence. In this seminar, Dr. René Shahmohamadloo examines what determines when adaptation occurs, and why it is sometimes insufficient to prevent population collapse under environmental stress. Drawing on large-scale replicated field evolution experiments, toxicological assays, and population genomics, he will show how standing genetic variation shapes both the mechanisms and limits of rapid adaptation, including the relative roles of host genetics and microbiomes. He will conclude by showing that persistence depends critically on initial maladaptation, where reducing the phenotype–environment mismatch can shift outcomes from stochastic extinction to predictable rescue under identical selective conditions.

René Shahmohamadloo is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at Washington State University. His research lies at the intersection of ecotoxicology, evolutionary biology, and population genomics, with a focus on understanding how chemical stressors shape organismal responses, rapid adaptation, and population persistence. René combines large-scale experimental evolution, toxicological assays, and genomic analyses to link environmental exposure histories to demographic and population-level outcomes. A defining feature of his work is the use of manipulative, replicated, multi-generational field experiments that impose realistic chemical stress regimes, allowing direct tests of how populations respond to chronic exposure under ecologically relevant conditions. His research spans complementary model systems, including Drosophila to study insecticide resistance and population persistence in agricultural contexts, and Daphnia to examine contaminant effects in freshwater food webs. His work seeks to understand when and why rapid adaptation enables population persistence, and when it fails to prevent extinction under environmental change.

René completed his Ph.D. in Toxicology at the Ontario Agricultural College, University of Guelph in 2021 and joined Washington State University in 2022, supported by NSERC and Liber Ero Postdoctoral Fellowships. He is the recipient of the 2026 College of Arts and Sciences Postdoctoral Researcher Achievement Award at WSU. Outside of research, René enjoys exploring the outdoors and food carts of the Pacific Northwest.