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Ecological opportunity and upward prey-predator radiation cascades

Pontarp, Mikael LU (2020) In Scientific Reports 10(1).
Abstract

A general goal in community ecology and evolutionary biology is to understand how diversity has arisen. In our attempts to reach such goals we become increasingly aware of interacting ecological and evolutionary processes shaping biodiversity. Ecological opportunity and adaptive radiations can, for example, drive diversification in competitive communities but little is known about how such processes propagate through trophic levels in adaptive radiation cascades. I use an eco-evolutionary model of trait-based ecological interactions and micro-evolutionary processes to investigate the macro-evolutionary aspects of predator diversification in such cascades. Prey diversification facilitates predator radiation through predator feeding... (More)

A general goal in community ecology and evolutionary biology is to understand how diversity has arisen. In our attempts to reach such goals we become increasingly aware of interacting ecological and evolutionary processes shaping biodiversity. Ecological opportunity and adaptive radiations can, for example, drive diversification in competitive communities but little is known about how such processes propagate through trophic levels in adaptive radiation cascades. I use an eco-evolutionary model of trait-based ecological interactions and micro-evolutionary processes to investigate the macro-evolutionary aspects of predator diversification in such cascades. Prey diversification facilitates predator radiation through predator feeding opportunity and disruptive selection. Predator radiation, however, often disconnects from the prey radiation as the diversification progresses. Only when predators have an intermediate niche width, high predatory efficiency, and high evolutionary potential can radiation cascades be maintained over macro-evolutionary time scales. These results provide expectations for predator response to prey divergence and insight into eco-evolutionary feedbacks between trophic levels. Such expectations are crucial for future studies that aim for a better understanding of how diversity is generated and maintained in complex communities.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Scientific Reports
volume
10
issue
1
article number
10484
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:32591632
  • scopus:85086881471
ISSN
2045-2322
DOI
10.1038/s41598-020-67181-5
project
Theoretical Macroevolutionary Ecology
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c9ba2cb6-3a78-4f7d-a068-40a26eec6bcb
date added to LUP
2020-07-07 08:10:49
date last changed
2024-03-04 23:24:56
@article{c9ba2cb6-3a78-4f7d-a068-40a26eec6bcb,
  abstract     = {{<p>A general goal in community ecology and evolutionary biology is to understand how diversity has arisen. In our attempts to reach such goals we become increasingly aware of interacting ecological and evolutionary processes shaping biodiversity. Ecological opportunity and adaptive radiations can, for example, drive diversification in competitive communities but little is known about how such processes propagate through trophic levels in adaptive radiation cascades. I use an eco-evolutionary model of trait-based ecological interactions and micro-evolutionary processes to investigate the macro-evolutionary aspects of predator diversification in such cascades. Prey diversification facilitates predator radiation through predator feeding opportunity and disruptive selection. Predator radiation, however, often disconnects from the prey radiation as the diversification progresses. Only when predators have an intermediate niche width, high predatory efficiency, and high evolutionary potential can radiation cascades be maintained over macro-evolutionary time scales. These results provide expectations for predator response to prey divergence and insight into eco-evolutionary feedbacks between trophic levels. Such expectations are crucial for future studies that aim for a better understanding of how diversity is generated and maintained in complex communities.</p>}},
  author       = {{Pontarp, Mikael}},
  issn         = {{2045-2322}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Scientific Reports}},
  title        = {{Ecological opportunity and upward prey-predator radiation cascades}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-67181-5}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41598-020-67181-5}},
  volume       = {{10}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}