Trophic network structure emerges through antagonistic coevolution in temporally varying environments
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Understanding the mechanisms underlying ecological specialization is central to our understanding of community ecology and evolution. Although theoretical work has investigated how variable environments may affect specialization in single species, little is known about how such variation impacts bipartite network structure in antagonistically coevolving systems. Here, we develop and analyse a general model of victim-enemy coevolution that explicitly includes resource and population dynamics. We investigate how temporal environmental heterogeneity affects the evolution of specialization and associated community structure. Environmental productivity influences victim investment in resistance, which will shape patterns of specialization through its regulating effect on enemy investment in infectivity. We also investigate the epidemiological consequences of environmental variability and show that enemy population density is maximized for intermediate lengths of productive seasons, which corresponds to situations where enemies can evolve higher infectivity than victims can evolve defence. We discuss our results in the light of empirical studies, and further highlight ways in which our model applies to a range of natural systems.
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Molecular & Population Studies of Disease Coevolution, Stress, parasites et variabilité spatio-temporelle : patrons d'évolution et de coévolution, Mutagenesis in coevlving systems : a case study of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 and its bacteriophage SBW25PHI2, Comment l’évolution affecte-t-elle la dynamique d’extinction et de changements d’aire dans le contexte des changements globaux ? Implications pour les projections écologiques
OpenAlex ID: W2097661133