Character displacement or priority effects: immigration timing can affect community assembly with rapid evolution

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Evolutionary Biology
• Theoretical Ecology

Background:

• Community assembly is influenced by eco-evolutionary dynamics.
• Evolution-mediated priority effect (EPE) and ecological character displacement (ECD) are two key processes.
• These processes have typically been studied in isolation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a theoretical framework integrating EPE and ECD.
• To investigate how immigration timing affects these eco-evolutionary dynamics.
• To understand conditions promoting species coexistence or exclusion.

Main Methods:

• A simple two-species competition model with eco-evolutionary feedback was developed.
• The model analyzed the impact of immigration timing differences on community assembly.
• Theoretical analysis explored the interplay between local adaptation and species interactions.

Main Results:

• Immigration timing is a critical parameter in eco-evolutionary community assembly.
• Small immigration timing differences favor ECD, promoting species coexistence via niche partitioning.
• Large immigration timing differences favor EPE, leading to community monopolization by early species.

Conclusions:

• The interplay between EPE and ECD is dependent on immigration timing.
• Future theoretical and empirical research should integrate these dynamics for a comprehensive understanding.
• Eco-evolutionary feedback significantly shapes biological community structure.