Relative size predicts competitive outcome through 2 million years

Liow, Lee Hsiang; Martino, Emanuela Di; Krzemińska, Małgorzata; Ramsfjell, Mali H.; Rust, Seabourne; Taylor, Paul D.; Voje, Kjetil L.

doi:10.1111/ele.12795

Cited by 23 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(51 reference statements)

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“…Our win‐lose overgrowth data have previously been published (Liow et al. , ), but here, we include “draws” as well (reciprocal overgrowth and standoffs), not least because they represent 30% of marginal battles in our data. As previously discussed (Liow et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the same system, zooid size (i.e., the size of the individual modules of the colony) was shown to be a predictor of overgrowth outcomes: species with relatively large zooids have the upper hand (Liow et al. ). However, not only is there variation in the outcomes of such spatial competition not fully explained by zooid size, but other traits are also thought to affect spatial competition (Centurion and Gappa , Taylor ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

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 Plio-Pleistocene of the Wanganui Basin contains rich bryozoan faunas that are currently being studied as exemplars of the macroevolutionary dynamics of ecological interactions through geological time (Liow et al , 2017. While the taxonomy of the cyclostomes in the sequences has received little attention for evaluation, it is apparent that most of the cheilostomes present are species still living in New Zealand waters.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this context, Gordon et al (2009) reported that 65% of the Pliocene bryozoan species of New Zealand are still extant. Ongoing research focusing on ecological interactions among bryozoans from the Wanganui Basin (Liow et al , 2017 has prompted taxonomic revision for some taxa (e.g., Di , resulting in a reduction of this percentage. In addition, these studies have revealed the presence of three new species, which are described here: Buskia waiinuensis sp.…”

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confidence: 99%

New bryozoan species from the Pleistocene of the Wanganui Basin, North Island, New Zealand

Martino

Taylor

Gordon

et al. 2017

EJT

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433

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Abstract. Three new fossil bryozoan species, a ctenostome and two cheilostomes, are described and figured from Pleistocene strata of the Wanganui Basin, New Zealand. Buskia waiinuensis sp. nov., a soft-body ctenostome preserved as a mould bioimmuration, is the first fossil record of the genus from New Zealand. Microporella rusti sp. nov., which is notable for the lack of ooecia in the large suite of colonies available, is one of the most common bryozoans in the Nukumaru Limestone and Nukumaru Brown Sand shellbeds, forming large encrusting sheet-like colonies, but is uncommon in younger beds. Rare, small-sized colonies of Parkermavella columnaris sp. nov. were found as fossil in two Quaternary beds, the Nukumaru Limestone and the Upper Kai-Iwi Shellbed, and also alive on rocks from the greater Cook Strait area.

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“…), as well as life history variation (Marshall and Monro ) and spatial competition (Liow et al. ; Liow et al. ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cope's Rule in a modular organism: Directional evolution without an overarching macroevolutionary trend

Liow

Taylor

2019

Evolution

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Cope's Rule describes increasing body size in evolutionary lineages through geological time. This pattern has been documented in unitary organisms but does it also apply to module size in colonial organisms? We address this question using 1169 cheilostome bryozoans ranging through the entire 150 million years of their evolutionary history. The temporal pattern evident in cheilostomes as a whole shows no overall change in zooid (module) size. However, individual subclades show size increases: within a genus, younger species often have larger zooids than older species. Analyses of (paleo)latitudinal shifts show that this pattern cannot be explained by latitudinal effects (Bergmann's Rule) coupled with younger species occupying higher latitudes than older species (an “out of the tropics” hypothesis). While it is plausible that size increase was linked to the advantages of large zooids in feeding, competition for trophic resources and living space, other proposed mechanisms for Cope's Rule in unitary organisms are either inapplicable to cheilostome zooid size or cannot be evaluated. Patterns and mechanisms in colonial organisms cannot and should not be extrapolated from the better‐studied unitary organisms. And even if macroevolution simply comprises repeated rounds of microevolution, evolutionary processes occurring within lineages are not always detectable from macroevolutionary patterns.

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Relative size predicts competitive outcome through 2 million years

Cited by 23 publications

References 31 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

New bryozoan species from the Pleistocene of the Wanganui Basin, North Island, New Zealand

Cope's Rule in a modular organism: Directional evolution without an overarching macroevolutionary trend

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