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126 results for “Ecological selection”
Data and script: Community size can affect the signals of ecological drift and niche selection on biodiversity
<p>Updated version of the code. Data files are the same. This is the final version of the code, associated with a manuscript published in Ecology (doi: 10.1002/ecy.3014). A preprint is also available: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/515098v1.abstract</p> <p>This is a unique dataset on insect communities sampled identically in a total of 200 streams in climatically highly different regions (100 in Brazil and 100 in Finland). The sampling design included 5 streams (communities) per watershed and provided us replicates of metacommunities (watersheds). Data also include information on in-stream variables (such as current velocity (m/s), depth (cm), stream width (cm), % of sand (0.25-2 mm), gravel (2-16 mm), pebble (16-64 mm), cobble (64-256 mm), and boulder (256-1024 mm), % of canopy cover by riparian vegetation, pH, conductivity, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus) and catchment level variables (such as average slope, % of native forest cover, pasture, agriculture, planted forests, urban areas, mining, water bodies, bare soil, secondary forest cover, and mixed land uses).</p> <p>In addition to the dataset, here we also provide and R code used to investigate the relationship between beta diversity and community size. This code calculates 4 types of beta-diversity metric for each of 100 watersheds (5 streams) in Brazil and Finland. Beta diversity: Sorensen and Bray-Curtis dissimilarity between all pairs. Beta deviation from null models: Raup-Crick (vegan version) and Bray-Curtis beta-deviation (based on the scripts by Chris Catano and Jonathan Myers). These beta diversity metrics are modelled against community size, environmental heterogeneity and spatial extent.</p> <p> </p>
Data from publication: Castillioni, K., & Isbell, F. (2023). Early positive spatial selection effects of beta-diversity on ecosystem functioning. Landscape Ecology, 1-15.
Data from publication: Castillioni, K., & Isbell, F. (2023). Early positive spatial selection effects of beta-diversity on ecosystem functioning. Landscape Ecology, 1-15. Spatial beta-diversity may increase landscape productivity if there are positive spatial selection effects. Alternatively, dominant species in mixtures might not be the most productive species in monoculture leading to negative or neutral spatial selection effects. However, these hypotheses remain untested experimentally. Seedling survival can determine species establishment, influencing productivity later. To address this knowledge gap, we experimentally tested whether transplanted seedlings of dominant species optimally sort among habitat types (grassland dominated by Andropogon gerardii, savanna by Quercus macrocarpa, deciduous forest by Acer rubrum, coniferous forest by Pinus strobus, bog by Larix laricina), creating positive effects of landscape diversity on seedling survival and net biodiversity effects at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (CCESR) in Minnesota, USA. The study is named BetaDIV and consists of 100 plots (20 plots per habitat × 5 habitats). Each of the five habitats includes two true replicate monocultures for each of the five species and two true replicates for each of the five possible mixture compositions of four species (leaving each one out in turn to eventually explore the effect of species identity). Each plot is 1.5 by 1.5 m, with 12 seedlings planted 0.5 m apart in a 4 × 4 square grid, except in the plot corners. In the early June 2022, we tagged and planted all seedlings (i.e., bareroot seedlings for trees and plugs for the grass A. gerardii). Two weeks after the initial transplanting, we started tracking seedling survival (presented here) to investigate how seedlings responded to local habitat conditions. We conducted a seedling census for each of the 1200 tagged seedlings (12 seedlings per plot×100 plots), in early September 2022, which was two months at the end
Fig. 5 in Distribution patterns of selected insect populations on their host plants - an ecological study
Fig. 5: Determination of the grade of aggregation (k) according to two independent methods (see text) and illustration of the relationship between k and xm: (a) greenflies (first method), (b) sap beetles (first method), (c) greenflies (second method), (d) sap beetles (second method).
Fig. 4 in Distribution patterns of selected insect populations on their host plants - an ecological study
Fig. 4: Mean values and standard deviations of the x/s2 ratios for a more detailed differentiation of m the animal distribution patterns. According to the results greenflies and sap beetles colonizing the upper parts of the nettle are distinguished by aggregated distribution patterns, whilst sap beetles residing on the lower parts of the nettle are characterized by a more regular distribution. Mealybugs tend to develop random distribution patterns.
Data for: Pollinator and habitat-mediated selection as potential contributors to ecological speciation in two closely related species
<p>In ecological speciation, incipient species diverge due to natural selection that is ecologically based. In flowering plants, different pollinators could mediate that selection (pollinator-mediated divergent selection) or other features of the environment that differ between habitats of two species could do so (environment-mediated divergent selection). Although these mechanisms are well understood, they have received little rigorous testing, as few studies of divergent selection across sites of closely related species include both floral traits that influence pollination and vegetative traits that influence survival. This study employed common gardens in sites of the two parental species and a hybrid site, each containing advanced generation hybrids along with the parental species, to test these forms of ecological speciation in plants of the genus <em>Ipomopsis</em>. Three vegetative traits (specific leaf area, leaf trichomes, and photosynthetic water-use efficiency) and five floral traits (corolla length and width, anther insertion, petal color, nectar production) were analyzed for impacts on fitness components (survival to flowering and seeds per flower, respectively). These traits exhibited strong clines across the elevational gradient in the hybrid zone, with narrower clines in theory reflecting stronger selection or higher genetic variance. Plants with long corollas and inserted anthers had higher seeds per flower at the <em>I. tenuituba </em>site, whereas selection favored the reverse condition at the <em>I. aggregata</em> site, a signature of divergent selection. In contrast, no divergent selection due to variation in survival was detected on any vegetative trait. Selection within the hybrid zone most closely resembled selection within the <em>I. aggregata</em> site. Across traits, the strength of divergent selection was not significantly correlated with width of the cline, which was better predicted by evolvability (standardized genetic variance). These results support the role of pollinator-mediated divergent selection in ecological speciation and illustrate the importance of genetic variance in determining divergence across hybrid zones.</p>
Fig. 3 in Nesting ecology and nest site selection of green-legged partridge
Fig. 3. Location of a green-legged partridge nest between the buttress of a large tree. The arrow shows the location of nest.
Fig. 1. Precipitation during 2009 and 2010 in Nesting ecology and nest site selection of green-legged partridge
Fig. 1. Precipitation during 2009 and 2010 and the nesting period for the same two years of green-legged partridge at Khao Yai National Park.
Fig. 2 in Nesting ecology and nest site selection of green-legged partridge
Fig. 2. Hourly variations (mean ± SD) in departure and return times of incubating female green-legged partridge (N = 6) at the Mo Singto Plot, Khao Yai National Park during 2009 and 2010.
The opportunity for selection: an important but slippery concept in ecology and evolution.
1. The concept of the opportunity for selection (<i>I</i>), measured as the variance in relative fitness, is over 60 years old, yet remains poorly understood by, or even unknown to, many ecologists and evolutionary biologists. This essay aims to clarify key conceptual and practical issues concerning use and estimation of I, which represents a theoretical upper limit on the rate of evolutionary adaptation. 2. The component of <i>I</i> caused by linear selection on a single trait is equal to the square of its standardised selection differential <i>i</i>. Even if no phenotypic selection occurs (<i>i</i>=0), however, realised <i>I</i> will typically be nonzero, owing to environmental or stochastic variation in fitness. 3. The opportunity for viability selection depends only on the mean survival rate, but selective mortality will typically account for only a small fraction of total mortality. 4. Fecundity selection is accompanied by expected overdispersion in reproductive success (variance > mean), but overdispersion can also occur for reasons unrelated to phenotype, or by chance. The estimated opportunity for fecundity selection can also vary independently of <i>i</i> if estimated mean reproductive success is affected by study design, e.g. offspring are counted at different life stages or a variable fraction are missed. 5. For these reasons, <i>I</i> alone should not be used to make inferences about selection in progress and its drivers. Nevertheless, some empirical studies have documented weak to moderate correlations between <i>I</i> and phenotypic selection, so variation in <i>I</i> or related metrics across ecological contexts might provide clues that unmeasured traits are under variable selection. 20-Oct-2022 --
Data from: Inferring ecological selection from multidimensional community trait distributions along environmental gradients
<p>Understanding the drivers of community assembly is critical for predicting the future of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Ecological selection ubiquitously shapes communities by selecting for individuals with most suitable trait combinations. Detecting selection types on key traits across environmental gradients and over time has the potential to reveal underlying abiotic and biotic drivers of community dynamics. Here we present a model-based predictive framework to quantify multidimensional trait distributions of communities (community trait niches), which we use to identify ecological selection types shaping communities along environmental gradients. We apply the framework to over 3600 boreal forest understory plant communities with results indicating that directional, stabilizing, and divergent selection all modify community trait niches and that the selection type acting on individual traits may change over time. Our results provide novel and rare empirical evidence for divergent selection within a natural system. Our approach provides a framework for identifying key traits under selection and facilitates the detection of processes underlying community dynamics.</p>
Data from: Inferring ecological selection from multidimensional community trait distributions along environmental gradients
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Selection maintains floral color polymorphism in the scarlet paintbrush, <em>Castilleja coccinea</em>, reflecting combined ecological factors
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Data for: Pollinator and habitat-mediated selection as potential contributors to ecological speciation in two closely related species
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Data from: Ecological mechanism of climate-mediated selection in a rapidly evolving invasive species
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Data from: Persistence of the ecological niche in pond damselflies underlies a stable adaptive zone despite varying selection
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The opportunity for selection: an important but slippery concept in ecology and evolution.
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Data from: Sexual and ecological selection on a sexual conflict gene
Sexual selection and conflict can act on genes with important metabolic functions, potentially shaping standing genetic variance in such genes, and thus evolutionary potential of populations. Here, using experimental evolution, we show how reproductive competition intensity and thermal environment affect selection on phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6Pgdh) – a metabolic gene involved in sexual selection and conflict in the bulb mite. The S allele of 6Pgdh increases male success in reproductive competition, but is detrimental to S-bearing males' partners. We found that the rate of the S allele spread increased with the proportion of males in the experimental populations, illustrating that harm to females is more easily compensated for males under more intense sexual competition. Furthermore, we found that under equal sex ratio, the S allele spreads faster at higher temperature. While the direction of selection on 6Pgdh was not reversed in any of the conditions we tested, which would be required for environmental heterogeneity to maintain polymorphism at this locus, our study highlights that ecological and sexual selection can jointly affect selection on important metabolic enzymes.
Extending the ecology of fear: Parasite-mediated sexual selection drives host response to parasites
<p>The 'ecology of fear' describes the negative effects natural enemies have on potential victims even when those victims are not consumed or infected. Although recent work has demonstrated parasites have non-consumptive effects (NCE) on potential hosts, how these effects vary within host populations is not well understood. We investigated how NCE vary based on host risk of infection and relative cost of infection by measuring the metabolic rate (MR) of naive <em>Drosophila nigrospiracula</em> exposed to an ectoparasite, <em>Macrocheles subbadius</em>. We tested two mutually exclusive hypotheses: 1) asymmetrical costs of infection drive adaptions for stronger responses to parasite exposure; or 2) asymmetrical risks of infection drive adaptions for stronger responses to parasite exposure. In this system, male flies have higher costs of infection relative to female flies due to parasite-mediated sexual selection; similarly, virgin females experience higher costs of infection relative to mated females. Risk of infection also varies among flies because mites preferentially infect female flies over males, and mites preferentially infect mated females over virgin females. Our results were compatible with the hypothesis that costs of infection drive the strength of response to mite risk. Female flies responded to parasite exposure with a 15.1% increase in MR, while exposed males showed a stronger response with a 31.3% increase in MR. Mated females increased their MR by 34.8% during mite exposure whereas virgin females experienced an increase of 61.2%. Our findings suggest that NCE of parasites can vary based on state-dependent costs of infection.</p>
Using ecological context to interpret spatiotemporal variation in natural selection
<p>Spatiotemporal variation in natural selection is expected, but difficult to estimate. Pollinator-mediated selection on floral traits provides a good system for understanding and linking variation in selection to differences in ecological context. We studied pollinator-mediated selection in five populations of <i>Dalechampia scandens</i> (Euphorbiaceae) in Costa Rica and Mexico. Using a nonlinear path-analytical approach, we assessed several functional components of selection, and linked variation in pollinator-mediated selection across time and space to variation in pollinator assemblages. After correcting for estimation error, we detected moderate variation in net selection on two of four blossom traits. Both the opportunity for selection and the mean strength of selection decreased with increasing reliability of cross-pollination. Selection for pollinator attraction was consistently positive and stronger on advertisement than reward traits. Selection on traits affecting pollen transfer from the pollinator to the stigmas was strong only when there was a mismatch between pollinator and blossom size under unreliable cross-pollination. These results illustrate how consideration of trait function and ecological context can facilitate both the detection and the causal understanding of spatiotemporal variation in natural selection.</p>
Data from: Ecological factors influence balancing selection on leaf chemical profiles of a wildflower
<div> <div> <div> <div> <p>Balancing selection is frequently invoked as a mechanism to maintain variation within and across populations. However, rigorous tests demonstrating balancing selection operating in nature are scarce, particularly on complex traits, which frequently display high levels of variation. Leveraging a focal polymorphism, leaf chemical profile in a perennial wildflower (<em>Boechera stricta</em>, Brassicaceae), we investigated the ecological and genetic mechanisms that may influence the maintenance of variation in this trait. A suite of common garden and greenhouse experiments showed that the alleles underlying variation in chemical profile have contrasting fitness effects across environments, implicating two ecological drivers of selection on chemical profile: herbivory and drought. Phenotype-environment associations and molecular genetic analyses revealed additional evidence of past selection by these drivers. Together, these data are consistent with balancing selection on chemical profile, likely caused by pleiotropic effects of genes that influence secondary chemical biosynthesis on herbivore defense and drought response.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div>
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