Effects of rapid metabolic trait evolution on species coexistence

A major challenge for ecology and evolution is to understand how biodiversity is maintained despite the tendency for competition to select for a single best competitor. The strength of competition is a key determinant of biodiversity, and may thereby impact ecosystem functioning. While it is well known that evolution can drive character displacement when species compete for nutritionally substitutable resources, we still do not know what facilitates or constrains adaptation of resource competition traits when limiting resources are non-substitutable (as in essential nutrients). Using a combination of experimental evolution, whole-genome re-sequencing, and competition experiments, we demonstrated that rapid evolution of metabolic traits (e.g. minimum resource requirements, R*) can alter competitive outcomes on ecological timescales and that improvements in resource requirements for different resources were positively associated (i.e. no detectable trade-offs), possibly owing to common metabolic pathways associated with essential resources.

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Bernhardt, J.R., Kratina, P, Pereira, A, Tamminen, M., Thomas, M.K.T, and A. Narwani, 2020. The evolution of competitive ability for essential resources. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. [code and data]