Biology subjects

Yacine, Y.

Publications and source records attributed to Yacine, Y..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

Attracting pollinators vs escaping herbivores: eco-evolutionary dynamics of plants confronted with an ecological trade-off

Many plant traits are subject to an ecological trade-off between attracting pollinators and escaping herbivores. The interplay of both plant-animal interaction types determines their evolution. As most studies focus on either pollination or herbivory, how they jointly affect the eco-evolutionary dynamics of plant-animal communities is often left unknown. Within a plant-pollinator-herbivore community where interaction strengths depend on trait matching, we consider the evolution of a plant trait involved in both plant-animal interactions. Using adaptive dynamics, we uncover when stabilizing, runaway (i.e. directional) or disruptive selection emerges and its consequences for multispecies coexistence. We find that strong pollination relative to herbivory favors stabilizing selection and coexistence. Strong herbivory relative to pollination fosters runaway selection and threatens coexistence. Importantly, given balanced interactions, joint effects may lead to disruptive selection, allowing the emergence of plant dimorphism. The strength of the ecological trade-off largely explains the occurrence of these contrasting eco-evolutionary dynamics. In particular, plant diversification requires strong trade-offs, with the strongest trade-offs allowing long-term polymorphism. We discuss how our results relate to various empirical cases where the interplay of pollination and herbivory maintains plant polymorphism. Beyond maintenance, our work suggests that it might also have fueled the diversification process itself. Graphical Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=116 SRC="FIGDIR/small/470900v5_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (21K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@13ec25org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1f4a371org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1654d2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ab565_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG Eco-evolutionary dynamics resulting from the evolution of plant phenotype under ecological trade-off A. Typical eco-evolutionary landscape. The type of selection and the ecological outcome depend on the dissimilarity between animal phenotypes (i.e. preferences for plant phenotype), which is a proxy for the strength of the ecological trade-off. B. The long-term community composition depends on the type of selection. (1) Runaway selection leads to the extinction of a first animal species as the plant phenotype is diverging. (a) Pollinators are lost first so that runway selection continues until herbivores are also lost. (b) Herbivores are lost first so that selection turns stabilizing over time, leading to a perfect plant-pollinator matching. (2) Stabilizing selection can enable the maintenance of coexistence. (3) Disruptive selection leads to the emergence of plant dimorphism. C_FIG

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

Stable coexistence in plant-pollinator-herbivore communities requires balanced mutualistic vs antagonistic interactions

Ecological communities consist of multiple species interacting in diverse ways. Understanding the mechanisms supporting coexistence requires accounting for such a diversity. Because most works focus either on mutualism or predation, how pollination and herbivory interactively determine the stable coexistence in plant-pollinator-herbivore communities is still poorly understood. Studying the typical three-species module of such communities, we determine the conditions allowing stable coexistence then investigate how its maintenance constrains the relative interaction strengths. Our results show that coexistence is possible if pollination is sufficiently strong relative to herbivory, while its stability is possible if herbivory is sufficiently strong relative to pollination. A balance between pollination and herbivory is therefore required. Interestingly, shared preferences for plant phenotypes, that would favor such balance, have been frequently reported in the empirical literature. The identified ecological trade-off between attracting pollinators and deterring herbivores therefore also appears as an emergent property of stable plant-pollinator-herbivore communities.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

Collapse and rescue of evolutionary food webs under global warming

O_LIGlobal warming is severely impacting ecosystems and threatening ecosystem services as well as human well-being. While some species face extinction risk, several studies suggest the possibility that fast evolution may allow species to adapt and survive in spite of environmental changes. C_LIO_LIWe assess how such evolutionary rescue extends to multitrophic communities and whether evolution systematically preserves biodiversity under global warming. C_LIO_LIMore precisely, we expose simulated trophic networks of co-evolving consumers to warming under different evolutionary scenarios, which allows us to assess the effect of evolution on diversity maintenance. We also investigate how the evolution of body mass and feeding preference affects coexistence within a simplified consumer-resource module. C_LIO_LIOur simulations predict that the long-term diversity loss triggered by warming is considerably higher in scenarios where evolution is slowed down or switched off completely, indicating that eco-evolutionary feedback indeed helps to preserve biodiversity. However, even with fast evolution, food webs still experience vast disruptions in their structure and functioning. Reversing warming may thus not be sufficient to restore previous structures. C_LIO_LIOur findings highlight how the interaction between evolutionary rescue and changes in trophic structures constrains ecosystem responses to warming with important implications for conservation and management policies. C_LI

evolutionary biology↗