DIVERSITY SPURS DIVERSIFICATION IN ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES.

Calcagno, V., Jarne, P., Loreau, M., Mouquet, N. and David, P. (2017).

Nature Communication, doi:10.1038/ncomms1581

Key message : In this study we propose a generalized model of ecological communities and investigate how the level of initial diversity influences the possibility of evolutionary diversification. We show that even simple models of intra- and inter-specific ecological interactions predict a positive effect of diversity on diversification. We call this phenomenon DDAR (diversity-dependent adaptive radiations) and identify mathematically two distinct pathways connecting diversity to diversification, involving character displacement and the positive diversity-productivity relationship.

Stochastic simulations are shown for the three ecological scenarios. Trait values are plotted through evolutionary time, darker shades of blue indicate greater relative abundance. In the three panels, adaptive radiation did not occur if starting with only one species (top), but did occur, for the same parameters, if starting with more than one species (bottom). The initial species and their trait values are shown as purple triangles on the x-axes. Fitness landscapes are shown as inserts.

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OTHER TOPICS: Aesthetics of Biodiversity, Biogeography, Macroecology & Ecophylogenetics, Experimental Evolution, Functional Biogeography, Functional Rarity, Nature for Future, Metacommunities, Metaecosystems, Reviews and Synthesis, Trophic Biogeography & Metaweb