Abstract
The presence and strength of resource competition can influence how organisms adaptively respond to environmental change. Selection may thus reflect a balance between two forces, adaptation to an environmental optimum and evolution to avoid strong competition. While this has been explored in single communities, its implications for eco-evolutionary dynamics at the metacommunity scale are unknown. We developed a simulation model of quantitative trait evolution for a trait that influences an organism’s carrying capacity and its intra- and interspecific competition strength. Multiple species inhabited a variable three-patch landscape, and we varied the connectivity level of the species among patches, the presence and pace of directional environmental change, and the strength of competition between the species. Our results reflected some patterns previously observed in evolving metacommunity models (e.g. species sorting and community monopolization), although species sorting was more common when competition strength was high and monopolization was observed only when the environmental change was very rapid. We also detected an eco-evolutionary feedback loop between local phenotypic evolution at one site and competition at another site that maintains species diversity in some conditions. The existence of a feedback loop that is maintained by dispersal indicates that eco-evolutionary dynamics in communities operate at a landscape scale.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
The manuscript is reduced in length and is re-written to improve focus on the novel aspects of the research findings.