Whether or not genetic divergence on the short-term of tens to hundreds of generations is com-patible with phenotypic stasis remains a relatively unexplored problem. We evolved predomi-nantly outcrossing, genetically diverse populations of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans under a constant and homogeneous environment for 240 generations, and followed individual locomotion behavior. We find that although founders of lab populations show highly diverse locomotion behavior, during lab evolution the component traits of locomotion behavior, defined as the tran-sition rates in activity and direction, did not show divergence from the ancestral population. In contrast, the genetic (co)variance structure of transition rates showed marked divergence from the ancestral state and differentiation among replicate populations during the final 100 gener-ations and after most adaptation had been achieved. We observe that genetic differentiation is a transient pattern during the loss of genetic variance along phenotypic dimensions under drift during the last 100 generations of lab evolution. However, loss of genetic variances present in the founders may be due to directional selection. These results suggest that once adaptation has oc-curred, and on the short-term of tens of generations, stasis of locomotion behaviour is repeatable because of effective stabilizing selection at a large phenotypic scale, while the genetic structuring of component traits is contingent upon drift history at a local phenotypic scale.

RESUMOA disposição inadequada dos resíduos sólidos no meio ambiente representa um grande desafio para a humanidade, especialmente nos países em desenvolvimento, em face da vulnerabilidade de uma parcela expressiva de sua população. Os resíduos em serviços de saúde demandam maior atenção, uma vez que representam forte ameaça ao meio ambiente e à saúde. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi investigar o estado da consciência ambiental, do comportamento pró-ambiental e da qualidade do gerenciamento dos resíduos em serviços de saúde em uma Instituição Federal de Ensino Superior -IFES, estabelecendo a relação entre esses três construtos. Foi realizada uma pesquisa descritiva, tipo survey, com dados obtidos por meio da aplicação de questionários em uma amostra composta por 154 participantes. Foi utilizada a escala Likert com grau de concordância de zero a dez em relação às afirmativas que compõem os construtos pesquisados. A modelagem de equações estruturais possibilitou o estudo das relações entre as três dimensões, entre os modelos testados, o de melhor ajuste revelou significativa relação entre a consciência ambiental e o comportamento pró-ambiental, e entre este e a qualidade do gerenciamento dos resíduos de serviços em saúde. Não foi comprovada a influência da consciência ambiental na qualidade do gerenciamento dos resíduos.Palavras-chave: Consciência ambiental. Comportamento pró-ambiental. Gerenciamento de resíduos em serviços de saúde.

Predicting phenotypic evolution on the short-term of tens to hundreds of generations, partic-ularly in changing environments and under finite population sizes, is an important theoretical goal. Because organisms are not simply collections of independent traits, making headway into this goal requires understanding if the phenotypic plasticity of ancestral populations aligns with the phenotypic dimensions that contain more genetic variation for selection to be effective and eventually feedback on the maintenance of genetic variation and promote adaptation or rescue from extinction. By performing 50 generations of experimental evolution in a changing envi-ronment we show that ancestral phenotypic plasticity for locomotion behavior in the partially-outcrossing nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is nonadaptive because it does not align with the phenotypic dimension encompassing most genetic variance in the ancestral population and is of no consequence to future phenotypic divergence. Despite evolution of the genetic structure of locomotion behavior we are able to predict the direction of phenotypic divergence, but not the magnitude, based on the genetic covariances between the component traits of locomotion behavior and fitness of the ancestral population. We further demonstrate that indirect selection on the component traits of locomotion behavior with unobserved trait(s) is responsible for the observed phenotypic divergence on them. Our findings indicate that selection theory can predict the direction of short-term adaptive phenotypic evolution.