Fluctuation induces evolutionary branching in a modeled microbial ecosystem

The impact of environmental fluctuation on species diversity is studied with a model of the evolutionary ecology of microorganisms. We show that environmental fluctuation induces evolutionary branching and assures the consequential coexistence of multiple species. Pairwise invasibility analysis is applied to illustrate the speciation process. We also discuss how fluctuation affects species diversity.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Coexistence of competing stage-structured populations

This paper analyzes the stability of a coexistence equilibrium point of a model for competition between two stage-structured populations. In this model, for each population, competition for resources may affect any one of the following population parameters: reproduction, juvenile survival, maturation rate, or adult survival. The results show that the competitive strength of a population is affected by (1) the ratio of the population parameter influenced by competition under no resource limitation (maximum compensatory capacity) over the same parameter under a resource limitation due to competition (equilibrium rate) and (2) the ratio of interspecific competition over intraspecific competition; this ratio was previously shown to depend on resource-use overlap. The former ratio, which we define as fitness, can be equalized by adjusting organisms' life history strategies, thereby promoting coexistence. We conclude that in addition to niche differentiation among populations, the life history strategies of organisms play an important role in coexistence

Socio-Economic Instability and the Scaling of Energy Use with Population Size

The size of the human population is relevant to the development of a sustainable world, yet the forces setting growth or declines in the human population are poorly understood. Generally, population growth rates depend on whether new individuals compete for the same energy (leading to Malthusian or density-dependent growth) or help to generate new energy (leading to exponential and super-exponential growth). It has been hypothesized that exponential and super-exponential growth in humans has resulted from carrying capacity, which is in part determined by energy availability, keeping pace with or exceeding the rate of population growth. We evaluated the relationship between energy use and population size for countries with long records of both and the world as a whole to assess whether energy yields are consistent with the idea of an increasing carrying capacity. We find that on average energy use has indeed kept pace with population size over long time periods. We also show, however, that the energy-population scaling exponent plummets during, and its temporal variability increases preceding, periods of social, political, technological, and environmental change. We suggest that efforts to increase the reliability of future energy yields may be essential for stabilizing both population growth and the global socio-economic system

Long-term cyclic persistence in an experimental predator–prey system

Predator–prey cycles rank among the most fundamental concepts in ecology, are predicted by the simplest ecological models and enable, theoretically, the indefinite persistence of predator and prey1,2,3,4. However, it remains an open question for how long cyclic dynamics can be self-sustained in real communities. Field observations have been restricted to a few cycle periods5,6,7,8 and experimental studies indicate that oscillations may be short-lived without external stabilizing factors9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19. Here we performed microcosm experiments with a planktonic predator–prey system and repeatedly observed oscillatory time series of unprecedented length that persisted for up to around 50 cycles or approximately 300 predator generations. The dominant type of dynamics was characterized by regular, coherent oscillations with a nearly constant predator–prey phase difference. Despite constant experimental conditions, we also observed shorter episodes of irregular, non-coherent oscillations without any significant phase relationship. However, the predator–prey system showed a strong tendency to return to the dominant dynamical regime with a defined phase relationship. A mathematical model suggests that stochasticity is probably responsible for the reversible shift from coherent to non-coherent oscillations, a notion that was supported by experiments with external forcing by pulsed nutrient supply. Our findings empirically demonstrate the potential for infinite persistence of predator and prey populations in a cyclic dynamic regime that shows resilience in the presence of stochastic events

Emergence of Collective Territorial Defense in Bacterial Communities: Horizontal Gene Transfer Can Stabilize Microbiomes

Multispecies bacterial communities such as the microbiota of the gastrointestinal tract can be remarkably stable and resilient even though they consist of cells and species that compete for resources and also produce a large number of antimicrobial agents. Computational modeling suggests that horizontal transfer of resistance genes may greatly contribute to the formation of stable and diverse communities capable of protecting themselves with a battery of antimicrobial agents while preserving a varied metabolic repertoire of the constituent species. In other words horizontal transfer of resistance genes makes a community compatible in terms of exoproducts and capable to maintain a varied and mature metagenome. The same property may allow microbiota to protect a host organism, or if used as a microbial therapy, to purge pathogens and restore a protective environment

The Presence–Absence Situation and Its Impact on the Assemblage Structure and Interspecific Relations of Pronophilina Butterflies in the Venezuelan Andes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

Assemblage structure and altitudinal patterns of Pronophilina, a species-rich group of Andean butterflies, are compared in El Baho and Monte Zerpa, two closely situated and ecologically similar Andean localities. Their faunas differ only by the absence of Pedaliodes ornata Grose-Smith in El Baho. There are, however, important structural differences between the two Pronophilina assemblages. Whereas there are five co-dominant species in Monte Zerpa, including P. ornata, Pedaliodes minabilis Pyrcz is the only dominant with more than half of all the individuals in the sample in El Baho. The absence of P. ornata in El Baho is investigated from historical, geographic, and ecological perspectives exploring the factors responsible for its possible extinction including climate change, mass dying out of host plants, and competitive exclusion. Although competitive exclusion between P. ornata and P. minabilis is a plausible mechanism, considered that their ecological niches overlap, which suggests a limiting influence on each other’s populations, the object of competition was not identified, and the reason of the absence of P. ornata in El Baho could not be established. The role of spatial interference related to imperfect sexual behavioral isolation is evaluated in maintaining the parapatric altitudinal distributions of three pairs of phenotypically similar and related species of Pedaliodes, Corades, and Lymanopoda

Coexistence via Resource Partitioning Fails to Generate an Increase in Community Function

Classic ecological theory suggests that resource partitioning facilitates the coexistence of species by reducing inter-specific competition. A byproduct of this process is an increase in overall community function, because a greater spectrum of resources can be used. In contrast, coexistence facilitated by neutral mechanisms is not expected to increase function. We studied coexistence in laboratory microcosms of the bactivorous ciliates Paramecium aurelia and Colpidium striatum to understand the relationship between function and coexistence mechanism. We quantified population and community-level function (biomass and oxygen consumption), competitive interactions, and resource partitioning. The two ciliates partitioned their bacterial resource along a size axis, with the larger ciliate consuming larger bacteria than the smaller ciliate. Despite this, there was no gain in function at the community level for either biomass or oxygen consumption, and competitive effects were symmetrical within and between species. Because other potential coexistence mechanisms can be ruled out, it is likely that inter-specific interference competition diminished the expected gain in function generated by resource partitioning, leading to a system that appeared competitively neutral even when structured by niche partitioning. We also analyzed several previous studies where two species of protists coexisted and found that the two-species communities showed a broad range of biomass levels relative to the single-species states

Effects of Total Resources, Resource Ratios, and Species Richness on Algal Productivity and Evenness at Both Metacommunity and Local Scales

The study of the interrelationship between productivity and biodiversity is a major research field in ecology. Theory predicts that if essential resources are heterogeneously distributed across a metacommunity, single species may dominate productivity in individual metacommunity patches, but a mixture of species will maximize productivity across the whole metacommunity. It also predicts that a balanced supply of resources within local patches should favor species coexistence, whereas resource imbalance would favor the dominance of one species. We performed an experiment with five freshwater algal species to study the effects of total supply of resources, their ratios, and species richness on biovolume production and evenness at the scale of both local patches and metacommunities. Generally, algal biovolume increased, whereas algal resource use efficiency (RUE) and evenness decreased with increasing total supply of resources in mixed communities containing all five species. In contrast to predictions for biovolume production, the species mixtures did not outperform all monocultures at the scale of metacommunities. In other words, we observed no general transgressive overyielding. However, RUE was always higher in mixtures than predicted from monocultures, and analyses indicate that resource partitioning or facilitation in mixtures resulted in higher-than-expected productivity at high resource supply. Contrasting our predictions for the local scale, balanced supply of resources did not generally favor higher local evenness, however lowest evenness was confined to patches with the most imbalanced supply. Thus, our study provides mixed support for recent theoretical advancements to understand biodiversity-productivity relationships

The Effects of Biogeography on Ant Diversity and Activity on the Boston Harbor Islands, Massachusetts, U.S.A

Many studies have examined how island biogeography affects diversity on the scale of island systems. In this study, we address how diversity varies over very short periods of time on individual islands. To do this, we compile an inventory of the ants living in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, Boston, Massachusetts, USA using data from a five-year All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory of the region's arthropods. Consistent with the classical theory of island biogeography, species richness increased with island size, decreased with island isolation, and remained relatively constant over time. Additionally, our inventory finds that almost half of the known Massachusetts ant fauna can be collected in the BHI, and identifies four new species records for Massachusetts, including one new to the United States, Myrmica scabrinodis. We find that the number of species actually active on islands depended greatly on the timescale under consideration. The species that could be detected during any given week of sampling could by no means account for total island species richness, even when correcting for sampling effort. Though we consistently collected the same number of species over any given week of sampling, the identities of those species varied greatly between weeks. This variation does not result from local immigration and extinction of species, nor from seasonally-driven changes in the abundance of individual species, but rather from weekly changes in the distribution and activity of foraging ants. This variation can be upwards of 50% of ant species per week. This suggests that numerous ant species on the BHI share the same physical space at different times. This temporal partitioning could well explain such unexpectedly high ant diversity in an isolated, urban site