Call for Abstracts: ESEB Symposium S14 - Evolution at Species Range Margins - August 17-22 Abstracts are invited for this symposium in the upcoming ESEB 2025 Congress in Barcelona, which will take place on 17th - 22nd August. The symposium aims to share new insights on why species have range margins and how and why marginal populations may evolve differently from others. Background Almost all organisms have geographical distributions that are limited by range margins. But why? What prevents the evolution of local adaptation in populations at a range margin from allowing the species to expand its range into new territory? One idea is that marginal populations are small and genetically depauperate, with limited potential for local adaptation. Gene flow into such populations would then increase their adaptive potential. Another idea is that migration into range margins may bring maladaptive alleles compromising the performance of marginal populations and the species' potential for expansion. Further questions of interest are: How do margins at high latitudes differ or resemble those at high elevations? Might the evolution of southern versus northern marginal (or leading- versus trailing-edge) populations differ? And how should we expect marginal populations to respond to changing environments or climates compared to more central populations? These are old questions, but answers remain elusive. We are keen to include in the symposium theory on species range margins and expansions and empirical work testing the theory, with research on different organisms (animals, plants and microbes) in different types of marginal habitats (latitudinal, elevational, precipitation-dependent, edaphic) and with different biological foci (ecological, population genetic). Organizers Dr. Shengman Lyu, University of Lausanne Prof. John Pannell, University of Lausanne Prof. Sophie Karrenberg, Uppsala University Invited Speakers Anna Hargreaves, McGill University, Montreal, Canada Lesley Lancaster, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom Deadline for abstracts submission 25 April 2025 For more information and to submit your abstract, please visit: https://eseb2025.com/call-for-abstracts/ John Pannell <john.pannell@unil.ch> (to subscribe/unsubscribe the EvolDir send mail to golding@mcmaster.ca)