A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Temporal Changes in the Role of Species Sorting and Evolution Determine Community Dynamics
Authors: Hoffmann, Julius; Hogle, Shane; Hiltunen, Teppo; Becks, Lutz
Publisher: WILEY
Publishing place: HOBOKEN
Publication year: 2025
Journal: Ecology Letters
Journal name in source: ECOLOGY LETTERS
Journal acronym: ECOL LETT
Article number: e70033
Volume: 28
Issue: 1
Number of pages: 14
ISSN: 1461-023X
eISSN: 1461-0248
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70033
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70033
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/477701653
Evolutionary change within community members and shifts in species composition via species sorting contribute to community and trait dynamics. However, we do not understand when and how both processes contribute to community dynamics. Here, we estimated the contributions of species sorting and evolution over time (60 days) in bacterial communities of 24 species under selection by a ciliate predator. We found that species sorting contributed to increased community carrying capacity, while evolution contributed to decreased anti-predator defences. The relative roles of both processes changed over time, and our analysis indicates that if initial trait variation was in the direction of selection, species sorting prevailed, otherwise evolution drove phenotypic change. Furthermore, community composition, population densities and genomic evolution were affected by phenotypic match-mismatch combinations of predator and prey evolutionary history. Overall, our findings help to integrate when and how ecological and evolutionary processes structure communities.
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Funding information in the publication:
This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (BE 4135/12-1), Research Council of Finland (#26081211), Research Council of Finland, Multidisciplinary Center of Excellence in Antimicrobial Resistance Research (#327741, #330886, #346126).
