Montejo‐Kovacevich, G., Farkas, T., Beckerman, A. orcid.org/0000-0002-4797-9143 et al. (1 more author) (2020) Exploring context dependency in eco‐evolutionary patterns with the stick insect Timema cristinae. Ecology and Evolution, 10 (15). pp. 8197-8209. ISSN 2045-7758
Abstract
Rapid evolution can influence the ecology of populations, communities, and ecosystems, but the importance of evolution for ecological dynamics remains unclear, largely because the contexts in which evolution is powerful are poorly resolved. Here, we carry out a large observational study to test hypotheses about context dependency of eco‐evolutionary patterns previously identified on the stick insect Timema cristinae . Experiments and observations conducted in 2011 and 2012 documented predator‐mediated negative effects of camouflage maladaptation (i.e., evolutionary dynamics) on: (a) T. cristinae abundance and, (b) species richness and abundance of other arthropods. Here we show that camouflage maladaptation does not correlate with T. cristinae abundance and, instead, is associated with increased abundance and species richness of cohabitating arthropods. We furthermore find that plants with high levels of Timema maladaptation tend to have higher foliar nitrogen, that is, higher nutritional value, and more positive mass‐abundance slopes in the coexisting arthropod communities. We propose explanations for the observed contrasting results, such as negative density‐ and frequency‐dependent selection, feedbacks between herbivore abundance and plant nutritional quality, and common effects of predation pressure on selection and prey abundance. Our results demonstrate the utility of observational studies to assess the context dependency of eco‐evolutionary dynamics patterns and provide testable hypotheses for future work.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | camouflage; eco‐evolutionary dynamics; maladaptation; metacommunity |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) > Department of Animal and Plant Sciences (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 24 Jul 2020 13:31 |
Last Modified: | 21 Jan 2022 11:24 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/ece3.6526 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:163648 |