The importance and adaptive value of life-history evolution for metapopulation dynamics
Authored by Dries Bonte, Quinten Bafort
Date Published: 2019
DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12928
Sponsors:
Flanders Research Foundation
Platforms:
Python
Model Documentation:
ODD
Model Code URLs:
https://zenodo.org/record/1483949#.XdCM7-hKhEY
Abstract
The spatial configuration and size of patches influence metapopulation
dynamics by altering colonisation-extinction dynamics and local density
dependency. This spatial forcing as determined by the metapopulation
typology then imposes strong selection pressures on life-history traits,
which will in turn feed back on the ecological metapopulation dynamics.
Given the relevance of metapopulation persistence for biological
conservation, and the potential rescuing role of evolution, a firm
understanding of the relevance of these eco-evolutionary processes is
essential. We here follow a systems' modelling approach to quantify the
importance of spatial forcing and experimentally observed life-history
evolution for metapopulation demography as quantified by
(meta)population size and variability. We therefore developed an
individual-based model matching an earlier experimental evolution with
spider mites to perform virtual translocation and invasion experiments
that would have been otherwise impossible to conduct. We show that (a)
metapopulation demography is more affected by spatial forcing than by
life-history evolution, but that life-history evolution contributes
substantially to changes in local- and especially metapopulation-level
population sizes, (b) extinction rates are minimised by evolution in
classical metapopulations, and (c) evolution is optimising individual
performance in metapopulations when considering the importance of more
cryptic stress resistance evolution. Ecological systems' modelling opens
up a promising avenue to quantify the importance of eco-evolutionary
feedbacks in spatially structured populations. Metapopulation sizes are
especially impacted by evolution, but its variability is mainly
determined by the spatial forcing. Eco-evolutionary dynamics can
increase the persistence of classical metapopulations. Conservation of
genetic variation and, hence, adaptive potential is thus not only
essential in the face of environmental change; it also generates
putative rescuing feedbacks that impact metapopulation persistence.
Tags
Heterogeneity
Demography
Dispersal
invasion
fitness
Population-dynamics
Extinction
Trait
Rapid evolution
Contemporary evolution
Systems' ecology
Tetranychus
urticae
Translocation