Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EcoEvoDevoNetwork (Origin and maintenance of biodiversity: An ecological, evolutionary and developmental theory of organisms’ interactions)
Reporting period: 2021-06-01 to 2023-05-31
Ecological diversification is thought to have given rise to much of the diversity of life on earth. This process, in which a single ancestral population diversifies into ecologically different species that exploit a variety of niches, has produced several diverse adaptive radiations including Darwin's finches, Caribbean anole lizards, and cichlid fishes. To understand the origin of biodiversity, it is therefore fundamental to identify the factors facilitating or constraining ecological diversification. ECO-EVO-DEVO-NETWORK seeks to advance our understanding about how ecological interactions and developmental processes affect ecological diversification. Specifically, it addressed this question in three different contexts: the emergence of predator-prey interactions, the occurrence of alternative reproductive modes, and natural individual variability in mortality.
ECO-EVO-DEVO-NETWORK investigated how ecological interactions and developmental processes affect ecological diversification. Specifically, it addressed this question in three different contexts: First, it studied the impact of emerging prey-predator interactions on adaptive radiations, finding that the emergence of predators hinders the diversification process. Second, it examined how alternative reproductive mechanisms by altering intraspecific competition affect the rate of evolution in adaptive radiations. Our results show that intrinsic differences among reproductive mechanisms enable a faster diversification in sexual lineages than in asexual ones; as a result, sexual lineages are expected to be more diverse. Third, this project, by investigating the effects of individual variability in mortality, found that commonly observed differences in mortality between juveniles and adults can facilitate adaptive diversification.
ECO-EVO-DEVO-NETWORK has expanded our knowledge about the processes that contribute to the origin of biodiversity in several ways. First, it shows that, contrary to previously hypothesized, the emergence of predators in a radiating clade does not increase diversity but it can in fact reduce it. Second, it contributes a previously lacking macroevolutionary perspective to the problem of why a larger number of eukaryotic species reproduce sexually relative to those that reproduce only asexually, despite the multiple costs of sexual reproduction. Third, this work was among the first to provide insights into how diversification may be facilitated by developmental changes in ecology, e.g. changes in survival, competitive ability, and diet throughout ontogeny. This opens the scope to a novel research line on adaptive diversification that integrates ecology and life history evolution.
In sum, the results of this project provide novel insights into the factors affecting the origin of biodiversity, which is essential for humans as it is critical for food, feed, medicines, fuel, pollination, clean air and many more resources and services required for human existence and well-being.
In sum, the results of this project provide novel insights into the factors affecting the origin of biodiversity, which is essential for humans as it is critical for food, feed, medicines, fuel, pollination, clean air and many more resources and services required for human existence and well-being.