Eco-evolutionary consequences of habitat warming and fragmentation in communities

Eco-evolutionary dynamics can mediate species and community responses to habitat warming and fragmentation, two of the largest threats to biodiversity and ecosystems. The eco-evolutionary consequences of warming and fragmentation are typically studied independently, hindering our understanding of their simultaneous impacts. Here, we provide a new perspective rooted in trade-offs among traits for understanding their eco-evolutionary consequences. On the one hand, temperature influences traits related to metabolism, such as resource acquisition and activity levels. Such traits are also likely to have trade-offs with other energetically costly traits, like antipredator defences or dispersal. On the other hand, fragmentation can influence a variety of traits (e.g. dispersal) through its effects on the spatial environment experienced by individuals, as well as properties of populations, such as genetic structure. The combined effects of warming and fragmentation on communities should thus reflect their collective impact on traits of individuals and populations, as well as trade-offs at multiple trophic levels, leading to unexpected dynamics when effects are not additive and when evolutionary responses modulate them. Here, we provide a road map to navigate this complexity. First, we review single-species responses to warming and fragmentation. Second, we focus on consumer–resource interactions, considering how eco-evolutionary dynamics can arise in response to warming, fragmentation, and their interaction. Third, we illustrate our perspective with several example scenarios in which trait trade-offs could result in significant eco-evolutionary dynamics. Specifically, we consider the possible eco-evolutionary consequences of (i) evolution in thermal performance of a species involved in a consumer–resource interaction, (ii) ecological or evolutionary changes to encounter and attack rates of consumers, and (iii) changes to top consumer body size in tri-trophic food chains. In these scenarios, we present a number of novel, sometimes counter-intuitive, potential outcomes. Some of these expectations contrast with those solely based on ecological dynamics, for example, evolutionary responses in unexpected directions for resource species or unanticipated population declines in top consumers. Finally, we identify several unanswered questions about the conditions most likely to yield strong eco-evolutionary dynamics, how better to incorporate the role of trade-offs among traits, and the role of eco-evolutionary dynamics in governing responses to warming in fragmented communities.     

Local contagion and regional compression: habitat selection drives spatially explicit,multiscale dynamics of colonisation in experimental metacommunities

Habitat selection, including oviposition site choice, is an important driver of community assembly in freshwater systems. Factors determining patch quality are assessed by many colonising organisms and affect colonisation rates, spatial distribution and community structure. For many species, the presence/absence of predators is the most important factor affecting female oviposition decisions. However, individual habitat patches exist in complex landscapes linked by processes of dispersal and colonisation, and spatial distribution of factors such as predators has potential effects beyond individual patches. Perceived patch quality and resulting colonisation rates depend both on risk conditions within a given patch and on spatial context. Here we experimentally confirm the role of one context‐dependent processes, spatial contagion, functioning at the local scale, and provide the first example of another context‐dependent process, habitat compression, functioning at the regional scale. Both processes affect colonisation rates and patterns of spatial distribution in naturally colonised experimental metacommunities.     

Water flow drives biodiversity by mediating rarity in marine benthic communities

In aquatic ecosystems, water flow mediates the delivery of reproductive propagules, competition and predation, each of which may have contrasting effects on biodiversity. Here, we show that water flow has a net positive effect on the biodiversity of benthic invertebrate communities in three biogeographic regions. In Palau and Alaska, flow velocity predicted 55-91% of the variance in species richness in natural communities. In experimental communities in Alaska and Maine, enhanced water flow treatments resulted in higher levels of species density (+56%) and richness (+74%), which were predicted by the abundance of locally rare species. Additionally, the richness of recruitment was higher in experimentally enhanced flows (+46%). Thus, the data suggest that flow drives diversity by mediating the delivery of rare species in multiple biogeographic regions. Consequently, flow velocity should be included in future developments of diversity theory and conservation strategy.     

Environmental heterogeneity,dispersal mode,and co‐occurrence in stream macroinvertebrates

Both environmental heterogeneity and mode of dispersal may affect species co‐occurrence in metacommunities. Aquatic invertebrates were sampled in 20–30 streams in each of three drainage basins, differing considerably in environmental heterogeneity. Each drainage basin was further divided into two equally sized sets of sites, again differing profoundly in environmental heterogeneity. Benthic invertebrate data were divided into three groups of taxa based on overland dispersal modes: passive dispersers with aquatic adults, passive dispersers with terrestrial winged adults, and active dispersers with terrestrial winged adults. The co‐occurrence of taxa in each dispersal mode group, drainage basin, and heterogeneity site subset was measured using the C‐score and its standardized effect size. The probability of finding high levels of species segregation tended to increase with environmental heterogeneity across the drainage basins. These patterns were, however, contingent on both dispersal mode and drainage basin. It thus appears that environmental heterogeneity and dispersal mode interact in affecting co‐occurrence in metacommunities, with passive dispersers with aquatic adults showing random patterns irrespective of environmental heterogeneity, and active dispersers with terrestrial winged adults showing increasing segregation with increasing environmental heterogeneity.     

Effect of landscape context on fish metacommunity structuring in stream networks

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False Correlates of Nested Patterns: A Case Study Using Temporary Pond Microcrustaceans

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Do birds of a feather disperse plants together?

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