Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) individuals are disproportionately impacted by the negative consequences of our ongoing environmental and climate crises, yet their valuable scientific voices are shockingly underrepresented within the fields of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB). As early‐career BIPOC EEB researchers, we recognise the key role that our fields play in understanding and mitigating the effects of our ongoing global crises, and are concerned about the lack of diversity we see among our own EEB cohorts and mentors. We present this piece as a call to action for the EEB Academy, drawing on our own experiences and the literature to suggest steps the Academy must take to increase representation of and equity for BIPOC graduate scholars in EEB. We synthesise these steps into four actionable ideas: anti‐racism education and practice, increased funding opportunities, integration of diverse cultural perspectives and a community‐minded shift in PhDs. Importantly, this advice is specifically directed at those who wield power in the Academy (e.g. funding agencies, societies, institutions, departments and faculty), rather than BIPOC scholars already struggling against inequitable frameworks in EEB.

Fisheries‐induced evolution (FIE) can result when harvest imposes artificial selection on variation in heritable phenotypic traits. While there is evidence for FIE, it remains difficult to disentangle the contributions of within‐generation demographic adjustment, phenotypic plasticity, and genetic adaption to observed changes in life history traits. We present evidence for FIE using dozens of Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) populations in which males adopt one of two age‐invariant, heritable life history tactics: most mature as large three‐year‐old “hooknose” and typically fight for spawning opportunities, while some mature as small two‐year‐old “jacks” and fertilize eggs through sneaking. The closure of a fishery targeting three‐year‐old fish provided an experimental test of the prediction that fishery‐imposed selection against hooknose males drives an evolutionary increase in the proportion of males adopting the jack tactic. The data support the prediction: 43 of 46 populations had higher jack proportions during than after the fishery. The data further suggest that changes in jack proportion were not solely the result of demographic adjustments to harvest. We suggest that systems where fisheries differentially exploit phenotypically discrete, age‐invariant life histories provide excellent opportunities for detecting FIE.

Research in ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) plays a key role in understanding and intervening in our current environmental and climate crisis. Although anthropogenic stressors and climate change continue to disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) individuals, their valuable scientific voices are shockingly underrepresented within EEB. To underscore this problem, we present a case study on EEB PhD graduates in the US (1994-2018), which illustrates that BIPOC scholars are significantly underrepresented in their cohorts. We recommend key steps that the EEB Academy should take to increase representation of BIPOC scholars in EEB, including anti-racism education and practice, increased funding opportunities, integration of diverse cultural perspectives, and a community-minded shift in PhDs. Importantly, this advice is directed at those who wield power in the Academy (e.g., funding agencies, societies, institutions, departments, and faculty), rather than BIPOC scholars already struggling against inequitable frameworks in EEB.

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