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Lepori VJ, Loeuille N, Rohr RP. Robustness versus productivity during evolutionary community assembly: short-term synergies and long-term trade-offs. Proc Biol Sci 2024; 291:20232495. [PMID: 38196359 PMCID: PMC10777152 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2023] [Accepted: 12/07/2023] [Indexed: 01/11/2024] Open
Abstract
The realization that evolutionary feedbacks need to be considered to fully grasp ecological dynamics has sparked interest in the effect of evolution on community properties like coexistence and productivity. However, little is known about the evolution of community robustness and productivity along diversification processes in species-rich systems. We leverage the recent structural approach to coexistence together with adaptive dynamics to study such properties and their relationships in a general trait-based model of competition on a niche axis. We show that the effects of coevolution on coexistence are two-fold and contrasting depending on the time scale considered. In the short term, evolution of niche differentiation strengthens coexistence, while long-term diversification leads to niche packing and decreased robustness. Moreover, we find that coevolved communities tend to be on average more robust and more productive than non-evolutionary assemblages. We illustrate how our theoretical predictions echo in observed empirical patterns and the implications of our results for empiricists and applied ecologists. We suggest that some of our results such as the improved robustness of Evolutionarily Stable Communities could be tested experimentally in suitable model systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vasco J. Lepori
- Department of Biology – Ecology and Evolution, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 10, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Nicolas Loeuille
- Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, IEES, Sorbonne Université, UPEC, CNRS, IRD, INRA, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Rudolf P. Rohr
- Department of Biology – Ecology and Evolution, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 10, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
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Duchenne F, Wüest RO, Graham CH. Seasonal structure of interactions enhances multidimensional stability of mutualistic networks. Proc Biol Sci 2022; 289:20220064. [PMID: 36100030 PMCID: PMC9470273 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Community ecologists have made great advances in understanding how natural communities can be both diverse and stable by studying communities as interaction networks. However, focus has been on interaction networks aggregated over time, neglecting the consequences of the seasonal organization of interactions (hereafter 'seasonal structure') for community stability. Here, we extended previous theoretical findings on the topic in two ways: (i) by integrating empirical seasonal structure of 11 plant–hummingbird communities into dynamic models, and (ii) by tackling multiple facets of network stability together. We show that, in a competition context, seasonal structure enhances community stability by allowing diverse and resilient communities while preserving their robustness to species extinctions. The positive effects of empirical seasonal structure on network stability vanished when using randomized seasonal structures, suggesting that eco-evolutionary dynamics produce stabilizing seasonal structures. We also show that the effects of seasonal structure on community stability are mainly mediated by changes in network structure and productivity, suggesting that the seasonal structure of a community is an important and yet neglected aspect in the diversity–stability and diversity–productivity debates.
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Affiliation(s)
- François Duchenne
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Rafael O Wüest
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Catherine H Graham
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
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3
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Weinbach A, Loeuille N, Rohr RP. Eco-evolutionary dynamics further weakens mutualistic interaction and coexistence under population decline. Evol Ecol 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s10682-022-10176-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
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4
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Barbour MA, Gibert JP. Genetic and plastic rewiring of food webs under climate change. J Anim Ecol 2021; 90:1814-1830. [PMID: 34028791 PMCID: PMC8453762 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13541] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2021] [Accepted: 05/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Climate change is altering ecological and evolutionary processes across biological scales. These simultaneous effects of climate change pose a major challenge for predicting the future state of populations, communities and ecosystems. This challenge is further exacerbated by the current lack of integration of research focused on these different scales. We propose that integrating the fields of quantitative genetics and food web ecology will reveal new insights on how climate change may reorganize biodiversity across levels of organization. This is because quantitative genetics links the genotypes of individuals to population‐level phenotypic variation due to genetic (G), environmental (E) and gene‐by‐environment (G × E) factors. Food web ecology, on the other hand, links population‐level phenotypes to the structure and dynamics of communities and ecosystems. We synthesize data and theory across these fields and find evidence that genetic (G) and plastic (E and G × E) phenotypic variation within populations will change in magnitude under new climates in predictable ways. We then show how changes in these sources of phenotypic variation can rewire food webs by altering the number and strength of species interactions, with consequences for ecosystem resilience. We also find evidence suggesting there are predictable asymmetries in genetic and plastic trait variation across trophic levels, which set the pace for phenotypic change and food web responses to climate change. Advances in genomics now make it possible to partition G, E and G × E phenotypic variation in natural populations, allowing tests of the hypotheses we propose. By synthesizing advances in quantitative genetics and food web ecology, we provide testable predictions for how the structure and dynamics of biodiversity will respond to climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew A Barbour
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Jean P Gibert
- Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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Yacine Y, Allhoff KT, Weinbach A, Loeuille N. Collapse and rescue of evolutionary food webs under global warming. J Anim Ecol 2021; 90:710-722. [PMID: 33314119 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13405] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2019] [Accepted: 11/16/2020] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Global warming is severely impacting ecosystems and threatening ecosystem services as well as human well-being. While some species face extinction risk, several studies suggest the possibility that fast evolution may allow species to adapt and survive in spite of environmental changes. We assess how such evolutionary rescue extends to multitrophic communities and whether evolution systematically preserves biodiversity under global warming. More precisely, we expose simulated trophic networks of co-evolving consumers to warming under different evolutionary scenarios, which allows us to assess the effect of evolution on diversity maintenance. We also investigate how the evolution of body mass and feeding preference affects coexistence within a simplified consumer-resource module. Our simulations predict that the long-term diversity loss triggered by warming is considerably higher in scenarios where evolution is slowed down or switched off completely, indicating that eco-evolutionary feedback indeed helps to preserve biodiversity. However, even with fast evolution, food webs still experience vast disruptions in their structure and functioning. Reversing warming may thus not be sufficient to restore previous structures. Our findings highlight how the interaction between evolutionary rescue and changes in trophic structures constrains ecosystem responses to warming with important implications for conservation and management policies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Youssef Yacine
- Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences Paris (iEES Paris), Sorbonne Université/CNRS/IRD/INRA/Université de Paris/UPEC, Paris Cedex 5, France
| | - Korinna T Allhoff
- Institute of Evolution and Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Avril Weinbach
- Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences Paris (iEES Paris), Sorbonne Université/CNRS/IRD/INRA/Université de Paris/UPEC, Paris Cedex 5, France
| | - Nicolas Loeuille
- Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences Paris (iEES Paris), Sorbonne Université/CNRS/IRD/INRA/Université de Paris/UPEC, Paris Cedex 5, France
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Bapteste E, Papale F. Modeling the evolution of interconnected processes: It is the song and the singers: Tracking units of selection with interaction networks. Bioessays 2020; 43:e2000077. [PMID: 33165956 DOI: 10.1002/bies.202000077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2020] [Revised: 09/18/2020] [Accepted: 09/24/2020] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Recently, Doolittle and Inkpen formulated a thought provoking theory, asserting that evolution by natural selection was responsible for the sideways evolution of two radically different kinds of selective units (also called Domains). The former entities, termed singers, correspond to the usual objects studied by evolutionary biologists (gene, genomes, individuals, species, etc.), whereas the later, termed songs, correspond to re-produced biological and ecosystemic functions, processes, information, and memes. Singers perform songs through selected patterns of interactions, meaning that a wealth of critical phenomena might receive novel evolutionary explanations. However, this theory did not provide an empirical approach to study evolution in such a broadened context. Here, we show that analyzing songs and singers, using patterns of interaction networks as a common ontology for both, offers a novel, actionable, inclusive and mathematical way to analyze not only the re-production but also the evolution and fitness of biological and ecosystemic interconnected processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric Bapteste
- Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, EPHE, Université des Antilles, 7, quai Saint Bernard, Bâtiment A 4ème étage, pièce 427, Paris, 75005, France
| | - François Papale
- Departement of Philosophy, University of Montreal, 2910 Édouard-Montpetit blvd, Montréal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada
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Girardot B, Gauduchon M, Ménard F, Poggiale JC. Does evolution design robust food webs? Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20200747. [PMID: 32605512 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.0747] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Theoretical works that use a dynamical approach to study the ability of ecological communities to resist perturbations are largely based on randomly generated ecosystem structures. By contrast, we ask here whether the evolutionary history of food webs matters for their robustness. Using a community evolution model, we first generate trophic networks by varying the level of energy supply (richness) of the environment in which species adapt and diversify. After placing our simulation outputs in perspective with present-day food webs empirical data, we highlight the complex, structuring role of this environmental condition during the evolutionary setting up of trophic networks. We then assess the robustness of food webs by studying their short-term ecological responses to swift changes in their customary environmental richness. We reveal that the past conditions have a crucial effect on the robustness of current food webs. Moreover, directly focusing on connectance of evolved food webs, it turns out that the most connected ones appear to be the least robust to sharp depletion in the environmental energy supply. Finally, we appraise the 'adaptation' of food webs themselves: generally poor, except in relation to a diversity of flux property.
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Affiliation(s)
- B Girardot
- Aix Marseille University, Univ Toulon, CNRS, IRD, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, MIO, UM110 Marseille, France
| | - M Gauduchon
- Aix Marseille University, Univ Toulon, CNRS, IRD, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, MIO, UM110 Marseille, France
| | - F Ménard
- Aix Marseille University, Univ Toulon, CNRS, IRD, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, MIO, UM110 Marseille, France
| | - J C Poggiale
- Aix Marseille University, Univ Toulon, CNRS, IRD, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, MIO, UM110 Marseille, France
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