The role of stressors in altering eco‐evolutionary dynamics

Theodosiou, Loukas; Hiltunen, Teppo; Becks, Lutz

doi:10.1111/1365-2435.13263

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 112 publications

(148 reference statements)

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“…In this way, morphological, physiological, or behavioral individual characteristics are linked to a certain function, such as growth rate or nutrient uptake (Garnier et al, 2015 ), and depend on each other by trade‐offs to determine the overall fitness (McGill et al, 2006 ; Violle et al, 2007 ). This approach makes explicit how trait changes can feed back to population and food web dynamics, and partly regulate the response of food webs to environmental changes (Raatz et al, 2019 ; Theodosiou et al, 2019 ; Yamamichi & Miner, 2015 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional diversity buffers the effects of a pulse perturbation on the dynamics of tritrophic food webs

Wojcik

Ceulemans

Gaedke

2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Biodiversity decline causes a loss of functional diversity, which threatens ecosystems through a dangerous feedback loop: This loss may hamper ecosystems’ ability to buffer environmental changes, leading to further biodiversity losses. In this context, the increasing frequency of human‐induced excessive loading of nutrients causes major problems in aquatic systems. Previous studies investigating how functional diversity influences the response of food webs to disturbances have mainly considered systems with at most two functionally diverse trophic levels. We investigated the effects of functional diversity on the robustness, that is, resistance, resilience, and elasticity, using a tritrophic—and thus more realistic—plankton food web model. We compared a non‐adaptive food chain with no diversity within the individual trophic levels to a more diverse food web with three adaptive trophic levels. The species fitness differences were balanced through trade‐offs between defense/growth rate for prey and selectivity/half‐saturation constant for predators. We showed that the resistance, resilience, and elasticity of tritrophic food webs decreased with larger perturbation sizes and depended on the state of the system when the perturbation occurred. Importantly, we found that a more diverse food web was generally more resistant and resilient but its elasticity was context‐dependent. Particularly, functional diversity reduced the probability of a regime shift toward a non‐desirable alternative state. The basal‐intermediate interaction consistently determined the robustness against a nutrient pulse despite the complex influence of the shape and type of the dynamical attractors. This relationship was strongly influenced by the diversity present and the third trophic level. Overall, using a food web model of realistic complexity, this study confirms the destructive potential of the positive feedback loop between biodiversity loss and robustness, by uncovering mechanisms leading to a decrease in resistance, resilience, and potentially elasticity as functional diversity declines.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional diversity buffers the effects of a pulse perturbation on the dynamics of tritrophic food webs

Wojcik

Ceulemans

Gaedke

2021

Ecology and Evolution

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“…That said, more experimental studies on the evolution of positive species interactions are needed to confirm if this is a general trend (39). Future directions to confirm if this is a general trend may require studies in variable environments that are not so predictable as in our study, such as environments that change stochastically or in environments with several stresses acting together, which may reflect better nature (40,41).…”

Section: The Nature Of the Environment Is Important To Predict How Stable Are Species Interactions Over Evolutionary Timescalesmentioning

confidence: 73%

Rapid evolution destabilizes species interactions in a fluctuating environment

Rodríguez‐Verdugo

Ackermann

2020

The ISME Journal

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Positive species interactions underlie the functioning of ecosystems. Given their importance, it is crucial to understand the stability of positive interactions over evolutionary timescales, in both constant and fluctuating environments; e.g. environments interrupted with periods of competition. We addressed this question using a two-species microbial system in which we modulated interactions according to the nutrient provided. We evolved in parallel four experimental replicates of species growing in isolation or together in consortia for 200 generations in both a constant and fluctuating environment with daily changes between commensalism and competition. We sequenced full genomes of single clones isolated at different time points during the experiment. We found that the two species co-existed over 200 generations in the constant commensal environment. In contrast, in the fluctuating environment, coexistence broke down when one of the species went extinct in two out of four cases. We showed that extinction was highly deterministic: when we replayed the evolution experiment from an intermediate timepoint we repeatably reproduced species extinction. We further show that these dynamics were driven by adaptive mutations in a small set of genes. In conclusion, in a fluctuating environment, rapid evolution destabilizes the long-term stability of positive pairwise interactions.

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“…Eco‐evolutionary dynamics can be modified by factors external to the feedback. In this issue, Theodosiou, Hiltunen, and Becks () consider the possible influence of an abiotic stressor on predator–prey eco‐evolutionary dynamics. Depending on the strength of the abiotic pressure, shifts in trade‐offs between defence and competition traits governing evolutionary responses can slow down, speed up or completely disrupt eco‐evolutionary feedback loops.…”

Section: Context Dependencementioning

confidence: 99%

The diversity of eco‐evolutionary dynamics: Comparing the feedbacks between ecology and evolution across scales

et al. 2019

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Evidence of reciprocal influences between ecological and evolutionary processes (eco‐evolutionary dynamics) is accumulating at different levels of biological organisation, ranging from populations to communities and even ecosystems. This special feature showcases the state‐of‐the art knowledge on eco‐evolutionary dynamics and dissects the feedback types, the biological and spatial scales as well as the agents of selection underlying the interactions between ecology and evolution. Theoretical approaches to eco‐evolutionary feedbacks can draw on a wide range of fields and have a long history within evolutionary ecology. The integration of theoretical approaches from quantitative genetics, evolutionary ecology, and metapopulation ecology is necessary to advance our understanding of rapid evolution and associated eco‐evolutionary dynamics. Empirical studies in this special feature focus on the evolution‐to‐ecology pathway by which evolutionary processes influence ecological dynamics (the direction in eco‐evolutionary dynamics less well studied). Advancing towards the study of complete (i.e. reciprocal) eco‐evolutionary feedbacks requires unravelling both the ecology‐to‐evolution and the evolution‐to‐ecology pathways in isolation and understanding how they are coupled. This endeavour will require a combination of laboratory, semi‐natural (e.g. mesocosm) and field studies. As the field of eco‐evolutionary dynamics matures, it moves from proof‐of‐principle studies to understanding increasingly complex biological systems. This Special Feature provides necessary tools and approaches, both theoretical and empirical, to achieve this new aim.

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The role of stressors in altering eco‐evolutionary dynamics

Cited by 13 publications

References 112 publications

Functional diversity buffers the effects of a pulse perturbation on the dynamics of tritrophic food webs

Functional diversity buffers the effects of a pulse perturbation on the dynamics of tritrophic food webs

Rapid evolution destabilizes species interactions in a fluctuating environment

The diversity of eco‐evolutionary dynamics: Comparing the feedbacks between ecology and evolution across scales

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