There is a growing awareness that adaptation -- once thought to be of only long-term concern -- is relevant to conservation biology today, particularly in understanding the potential responses of species and species interactions to anthropogenically induced global environmental change. Research on this topic by evolutionary biologists and paleobiologists, which until recently has proceeded along more or less independent lines, suggests that conservation efforts that ignore processes of adaptation are risky in the long run. This symposium will provide a platform for these allied disciplines to come together. Speakers will discuss the insights and unique perspectives available from each discipline and explore the difficult challenges we face ahead in managing processes of adaptation that are linked across varied spatial and temporal scales.