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Evolutionary responses to environmental change: trophic interactions affect adaptation and persistence.

ABSTRACT: According to recent reviews, the question of how trophic interactions may affect evolutionary responses to climate change remains unanswered. In this modelling study, we explore the evolutionary dynamics of thermal and plant-herbivore interaction traits in a warming environment. We find the herbivore usually reduces adaptation speed and persistence time of the plant by reducing biomass. However, if the plant interaction trait and thermal trait are correlated, herbivores can create different coevolutionary attractors. One attractor has a warmer plant thermal optimum, and the other a colder one compared with the environment. A warmer plant thermal strategy is given a head start under warming, the only case where herbivores can increase plant persistence under warming. Persistence time of the plant under warming is maximal at small or large thermal niche width. This study shows that considering trophic interactions is necessary and feasible for understanding how ecosystems respond to climate change.

SUBMITTER: Mellard JP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4389602 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Evolutionary responses to environmental change: trophic interactions affect adaptation and persistence.

Mellard Jarad P JP de Mazancourt Claire C Loreau Michel M

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20150401 1805

According to recent reviews, the question of how trophic interactions may affect evolutionary responses to climate change remains unanswered. In this modelling study, we explore the evolutionary dynamics of thermal and plant-herbivore interaction traits in a warming environment. We find the herbivore usually reduces adaptation speed and persistence time of the plant by reducing biomass. However, if the plant interaction trait and thermal trait are correlated, herbivores can create different coev ...[more]

PMID: 25788599

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Project description:Evolutionary adaptation affects demographic resilience to climate change but few studies have attempted to project changes in selective pressures or quantify impacts of trait responses on population dynamics and extinction risk. We used a novel individual-based model to explore potential evolutionary changes in migration timing and the consequences for population persistence in sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka in the Fraser River, Canada, under scenarios of future climate warming. Adult sockeye salmon are highly sensitive to increases in water temperature during their arduous upriver migration, raising concerns about the fate of these ecologically, culturally, and commercially important fish in a warmer future. Our results suggest that evolution of upriver migration timing could allow these salmon to avoid increasingly frequent stressful temperatures, with the odds of population persistence increasing in proportion to the trait heritability and phenotypic variance. With a simulated 2°C increase in average summer river temperatures by 2100, adult migration timing from the ocean to the river advanced by ∼10 days when the heritability was 0.5, while the risk of quasi-extinction was only 17% of that faced by populations with zero evolutionary potential (i.e., heritability fixed at zero). The rates of evolution required to maintain persistence under simulated scenarios of moderate to rapid warming are plausible based on estimated heritabilities and rates of microevolution of timing traits in salmon and related species, although further empirical work is required to assess potential genetic and ecophysiological constraints on phenological adaptation. These results highlight the benefits to salmon management of maintaining evolutionary potential within populations, in addition to conserving key habitats and minimizing additional stressors where possible, as a means to build resilience to ongoing climate change. More generally, they demonstrate the importance and feasibility of considering evolutionary processes, in addition to ecology and demography, when projecting population responses to environmental change.

Project description:Genetic variation in foundation tree species can strongly influence communities of trophic-dependent organisms, such as herbivorous insects, pollinators, and mycorrhizal fungi. However, the extent and manner in which this variation results in unexpected interactions that reach trophic-independent organisms remains poorly understood, even though these interactions are essential to understanding complex ecosystems. In pinyon-juniper woodland at Sunset Crater (Arizona, USA), we studied pinyon (Pinus edulis) that were either resistant or susceptible to stem-boring moths (Dioryctria albovittella). Moth herbivory alters the architecture of susceptible trees, thereby modifying the microhabitat beneath their crowns. We tested the hypothesis that this interaction between herbivore and tree genotype extends to affect trophic-independent communities of saxicolous (i.e., growing on rocks) lichens and bryophytes and vascular plants beneath their crowns. Under 30 pairs of moth-resistant and moth-susceptible trees, we estimated percent cover of lichens, bryophytes, and vascular plants. We also quantified the cover of leaf litter and rocks as well as light availability. Four major findings emerged. (1) Compared to moth-resistant trees, which exhibited monopodial architecture, the microhabitat under the shrub-like susceptible trees was 60% darker and had 21% more litter resulting in 68% less rock exposure. (2) Susceptible trees had 56% and 87% less cover, 42% and 80% less richness, and 38% and 92% less diversity of saxicolous and plant communities, respectively, compared to resistant trees. (3) Both saxicolous and plant species accumulated at a slower rate beneath susceptible trees, suggesting an environment that might inhibit colonization and/or growth. (4) Both saxicolous and plant communities were negatively affected by the habitat provided by susceptible trees. The results suggest that herbivory of moth-susceptible trees generated litter at high enough rates to reduce rock substrate availability, thereby suppressing the saxicolous communities. However, our results did not provide a causal pathway explaining the suppression of vascular plants. Nonetheless, the cascading effects of genetic variation in pinyon appear to extend beyond trophic-dependent moths to include trophic-independent saxicolous and vascular plant communities that are affected by specific tree-herbivore interactions that modify the local environment. We suggest that such genetically based interactions are common in nature and contribute to the evolution of complex communities.

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Dataset Information

Evolutionary responses to environmental change: trophic interactions affect adaptation and persistence.

Publications

Evolutionary responses to environmental change: trophic interactions affect adaptation and persistence.

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