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Updated: Mar 1, 2026
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Daily Transfers, Archiving Populations, and Measuring Fitness in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment with Escherichia coli
Published on: August 18, 2023
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EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF COMMUNITY EVOLUTION I: THE RESPONSE TO SELECTION AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL
1Department of Zoology, University of Vermont, Marsh Life Science Building, Burlington, VT, 05405-0086, USA.
Summary
Community selection, where communities rather than individuals are units of selection, can drive evolutionary change. This study shows community selection can alter traits within and between species, suggesting ecological interactions shape evolution.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Community Ecology
- Population Genetics
Background:
- Coevolution is typically viewed as reciprocal adaptation between species due to individual selection.
- An alternative hypothesis suggests coevolution can arise from selection acting directly on ecological communities.
- Simple two-species communities, like lichens, can potentially serve as units of selection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of selection acting at the community level.
- To determine if community selection can induce changes in community phenotypes.
- To analyze direct and correlated responses to community selection within and between species.
Main Methods:
- Utilized two-species communities of Tribolium castaneum and T. confusum.
- Applied community selection based on differential survival and reproduction of communities.
- Monitored changes in a selected trait and correlated responses in other traits within and between species.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated that community selection can significantly alter community phenotypes.
- Observed direct effects of selection on the targeted trait.
- Documented within-species and between-species correlated responses to selection, with the latter mediated by ecological pathways.
Conclusions:
- Community selection can lead to substantial evolutionary changes in community phenotypes.
- Between-species correlated responses highlight the role of interspecific ecological interactions in community evolution.
- Community selection may drive evolutionary responses qualitatively different from individual-level selection.
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