Evolution in a Community Context: Trait Responses to Multiple Species Interactions

terHorst, Casey P.; Zee, Peter C.; Heath, Katy D.; Miller, Thomas E.; Pastore, Abigail I.; Patel, Swati; Schreiber, Sebastian J.; Wade, Michael J.; Walsh, Matthew

doi:10.1086/695835

Cited by 90 publications

(112 citation statements)

References 119 publications

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“…This tractability is attributable to insights from the model community of encrusting bryozoans that preserves direct evidence of ancient ecological interactions, aspects of life history through the distribution of reproductive zooids within colonies, and ecological dynamics, contributing a diverse platform on which to answer evolutionary questions in a community context (terHorst et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size, weapons, and armor as predictors of competitive outcomes in fossil and contemporary marine communities

Liow

Reitan

Voje

et al. 2019

Ecological Monographs

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Inter‐ and intraspecific competition are usually observed over a few generations but their patterns and consequences are seldom tractable in natural systems over longer timescales relevant to macroevolutionary change. Here, we use win‐draw‐lose competitive overgrowths for a marine benthic community of encrusting bryozoans that have evolved together in New Zealand for at least 2.3 million years to investigate battles for substrate space, a resource that is limiting for these colonial organisms. Using more than 6,000 fossilized and contemporary battles, we explored what combination of traits—including relative zooid (module) size, weapons, armor, and relative abundance—best predict battle outcomes, and if these are time varying. In simpler models, where we disregard trait–trait interactions, we find that the effects of larger zooid sizes and three‐dimensional growth on battle outcomes are both positive, while that of relative abundance is negative, such that more common species are more often overgrown by less common species. When we include trait–trait and trait–time interactions in our models, we confirm that a larger zooid size is advantageous for successful overgrowth but infer that it is time varying. In these complex models, we also detect interactions between combinations of traits, where more armored and weaponized bryozoans seem to be at a disadvantage in overgrowth battles. Our best models do perform statistically better than the null model, but we find that there is low predictability for overgrowth outcomes for our New Zealand data set of fossil and contemporary battles, suggesting unmeasured variables and/or high stochasticity in a system that is otherwise well characterized. A best model, developed using our New Zealand data, is applied to three ecologically similar systems described in previous studies to investigate its general predictive power, with the expectation that it would perform better than null models. Surprisingly, we find that the best model developed within the New Zealand system cannot be extrapolated to other encrusting cheilostome bryozoan communities and that these three communities often even have opposite signs for trait coefficients. We conclude that there is much to learn about multi‐species marine communities where biotic interactions such as competition may have long‐lasting consequences for ecological and evolutionary dynamics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size, weapons, and armor as predictors of competitive outcomes in fossil and contemporary marine communities

Liow

Reitan

Voje

et al. 2019

Ecological Monographs

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“…The findings of both studies discussed above can easily be understood in the light of modern coexistence theory (reviewed in Chesson, ) as they relate to stabilizing (concentrating intraspecific interaction by dispersal limitation) and equalizing mechanisms (sorting). In summary, EEFs in communities emerge, because species’ traits may affect the community and, vice versa, the community context may affect trait evolution (terHorst et al., ). Interestingly, fitness may not only depend on densities, but also on total community biomass, total productivity or even on species richness.…”

Section: Eefs In a Community And Ecosystem Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eco‐evolutionary feedbacks—Theoretical models and perspectives

et al. 2018

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Theoretical models pertaining to feedbacks between ecological and evolutionary processes are prevalent in multiple biological fields. An integrative overview is currently lacking, due to little crosstalk between the fields and the use of different methodological approaches. Here, we review a wide range of models of eco‐evolutionary feedbacks and highlight their underlying assumptions. We discuss models where feedbacks occur both within and between hierarchical levels of ecosystems, including populations, communities and abiotic environments, and consider feedbacks across spatial scales. Identifying the commonalities among feedback models, and the underlying assumptions, helps us better understand the mechanistic basis of eco‐evolutionary feedbacks. Eco‐evolutionary feedbacks can be readily modelled by coupling demographic and evolutionary formalisms. We provide an overview of these approaches and suggest future integrative modelling avenues. Our overview highlights that eco‐evolutionary feedbacks have been incorporated in theoretical work for nearly a century. Yet, this work does not always include the notion of rapid evolution or concurrent ecological and evolutionary time scales. We show the importance of density‐ and frequency‐dependent selection for feedbacks, as well as the importance of dispersal as a central linking trait between ecology and evolution in a spatial context. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13241/suppinfo is available for this article.

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“…Ecological interactions often play a key role in shaping selective constraints, as evidenced by the role of antagonistic and mutualistic interactions in driving evolutionary change (Schluter, 2000;36 Abrams, 2000;Bronstein et al, 2006). Although there is clear evidence that species interactions can shape the adaptive landscape, we still have a poor understanding of how the adaptive landscape is shaped by a community of interacting species (McPeek, 2017;terHorst et al, 2018). Resolution 39 on how change in ecological communities shape phenotypic evolution is urgently needed though, given the rapid losses of biodiversity we are observing in the Anthropocene (Scheffers et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenotypic evolution is more constrained in simpler food webs

Barbour

Greyson-Gaito

Sootodeh

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Word Count: 251 Total Word Count: 5833 AbstractThe loss of biodiversity is altering the structure of ecological networks; however, we are currently in a poor position to predict how these altered communities will affect the evolutionary potential 3 of remaining populations. Theory on adaptive landscapes provides a framework for predicting how selection constrains phenotypic evolution, but often treats the network context of evolving populations as a "black box". Here, we integrate ecological networks and adaptive landscapes to 6 examine how changes in food-web structure shape evolutionary constraints. We conducted a field experiment that removed a guild of larval parasitoids that imposed direct and indirect selection pressures on an insect herbivore. We then measured herbivore survival as a function of three key 9 phenotypic traits to estimate directional, quadratic, and correlational selection gradients in each treatment. We used these selection gradients to characterize the slope and curvature of the adaptive landscape to understand the direct and indirect effects of consumer loss on evolutionary constraints. 12 We found that the number of traits under directional selection increased with the removal of larval parasitoids, indicating greater selective constraints on the trajectory of evolutionary change.Similarly, we found that the removal of larval parasitoids altered the curvature of the adaptive 15 landscape in such a way that tended to decrease the evolvability of the traits we measured in the next generation. Our results suggest that the loss of trophic interactions can impose greater constraints on phenotypic evolution. This indicates that the simplification of ecological communities may 18 constrain the adaptive potential of remaining populations to future environmental change. 2 Impact SummaryThe loss of biodiversity is rewiring the web of life; however, it is uncertain how this will affect 21 the ability of remaining populations to evolve and adapt to future environments. To gain insight to these effects, we conducted a field experiment that either maintained a natural community of predators or removed all but one of the predators that was able to impose selection on a common 24 prey. We found that the loss of predators acted to constrain prey evolution toward a particular combination of traits. Moreover, we found that the loss of predators could make it more difficult for prey to adapt to uncertain future environments. Taken together, our results suggest that the 27 simplification of the web of life may constrain the adaptive potential of remaining populations.3

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Evolution in a Community Context: Trait Responses to Multiple Species Interactions

Cited by 90 publications

References 119 publications

Size, weapons, and armor as predictors of competitive outcomes in fossil and contemporary marine communities

Size, weapons, and armor as predictors of competitive outcomes in fossil and contemporary marine communities

Eco‐evolutionary feedbacks—Theoretical models and perspectives

Phenotypic evolution is more constrained in simpler food webs

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