Parallel ecological and evolutionary responses to selection in a natural bacterial community

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Evolutionary Biology
• Microbiology

Background:

• Evolutionary dynamics can occur rapidly, influencing ecological timescales.
• Eco-evolutionary dynamics are often studied in simplified systems, limiting direct comparability of ecological and evolutionary measures.
• Understanding trait evolution in complex communities is crucial for ecological theory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify how ecological species sorting and rapid evolution jointly shape community trait distributions.
• To investigate within- and between-species changes in siderophore production under selection.
• To compare eco-evolutionary dynamics in isolated versus community contexts.

Main Methods:

• Tracking changes in siderophore production within a complex bacterial community.
• Applying copper-imposed selection to bacterial populations.
• Comparing evolutionary responses in isolated species versus mixed communities.

Main Results:

• Intermediate levels of siderophore production were favored under copper selection, both within and between species.
• Rapid evolution and ecological sorting occurred over similar timescales.
• Siderophore production evolved to intermediate levels irrespective of whether species evolved in isolation or in a community.

Conclusions:

• Rapid evolutionary selection plays a significant role in shaping community trait distributions in complex bacterial communities.
• Interactions within a community may not always qualitatively alter trait evolution.
• Eco-evolutionary dynamics can be concordant even in complex, naturalistic settings.