Eco-Evo-Devo Bio
Ecological Evolutionary Developmental Biology
The goal of this website is to highlight work in this area, and events. This website was set up after David Epel, a pioneer in this area, hosted an EcoDevoBio Summit at Stanford University. He is leading a group of scientists to raise funds to continue bi-annual summits as well as fund research for students to continue this work, for now at Stanford’s Hopkins Marin Station in Pacific Grove or at Stanford University, with encouragement to have international collaborations. You can donate to this fund by expressing your interest here.
About eco evo devo
Ecological evolutionary developmental biology, or eco-evo-devo, integrates ecology, developmental biology, and evolutionary theory. It studies how an organism's environment influences its physical development and how these environmentally-induced traits become incorporated into evolutionary change. This concept emerged out of Scott Gilbert’s work. With David Epel, he has published the first and an updated text book in this area. This area integrates concepts of phenotypic plasticity, epigenetic inheritance, symbiotic interactions, ecology and holobionts. Climate change is increasing the amount of biological changes in short periods, increasing the importance of progress in this field.
Past events
Publications
First textbook: Ecological Developmental Biology, Scott Gilbert and David Epel, 2008
Latest textbook: Eco-Evo-Devo: The Environmental Regulation of Development, Health, and Evolution, by Scott F. Gilbert, David W. Pfennig
Early papers defining the field:
Eco-Evo-Devo: The Time Has Come, Ecological Genomics
Eco-evo-devo: an emergent integrative discipline of biology, Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 2025