Faculty of Biology, Theoretical Biology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.
J Anim Ecol. 2024 Aug;93(8):989-1002. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.14118. Epub 2024 Jun 10.
Ecological networks comprising of mutualistic interactions can suddenly transition to undesirable states, such as collapse, due to small changes in environmental conditions such as a rise in local environmental temperature. However, little is known about the capacity of such interaction networks to adapt to a rise in temperature and the occurrence of critical transitions. Here, combining quantitative genetics and mutualistic dynamics in an eco-evolutionary framework, we evaluated the stability and resilience of mutualistic networks to critical transitions as environmental temperature increases. Specifically, we modelled the dynamics of an optimum trait that determined the tolerance of species to local environmental temperature as well as to species interaction. We then evaluated the impact of individual trait variation and evolutionary dynamics on the stability of feasible equilibria, the occurrence of threshold temperatures at which community collapses, and the abruptness of such community collapses. We found that mutualistic network architecture, that is the size of the community and the arrangement of species interactions, interacted with evolutionary dynamics to impact the onset of network collapses. Some networks had more capacity to track the rise in temperatures than others and thereby increased the threshold temperature at which the networks collapsed. However, such a result was modulated by the amount of heritable trait variation species exhibited, with high trait variation in the mean optimum phenotypic trait increasing the environmental temperature at which networks collapsed. Furthermore, trait variation not only increased the onset of temperatures at which networks collapsed but also increased the local stability of feasible equilibria. Our study argued that mutualistic network architecture interacts with species evolutionary dynamics and increases the capacity of networks to adapt to changes in temperature and thereby delayed the occurrence of community collapses.
由互利相互作用组成的生态网络由于环境条件的微小变化，如局部环境温度升高，可能会突然转变为不良状态，例如崩溃。然而，对于这种相互作用网络适应温度升高和关键转变的能力知之甚少。在这里，我们在生态进化框架中结合定量遗传学和互利动力学，评估了随着环境温度升高，互利网络对关键转变的稳定性和弹性。具体来说，我们模拟了决定物种对局部环境温度以及物种相互作用的耐受性的最佳特征的动态。然后，我们评估了个体特征变异和进化动态对可行平衡点稳定性、社区崩溃的阈值温度以及社区崩溃的突然性的影响。我们发现，互利网络架构，即社区的大小和物种相互作用的排列，与进化动态相互作用，影响网络崩溃的发生。一些网络比其他网络具有更大的跟踪温度上升的能力，从而增加了网络崩溃的阈值温度。然而，这种结果受到物种表现出的可遗传特征变异量的调节，平均最佳表型特征的特征变异越高，网络崩溃的环境温度就越高。此外，特征变异不仅增加了网络崩溃的温度开始，而且增加了可行平衡点的局部稳定性。我们的研究表明，互利网络架构与物种进化动态相互作用，并增加了网络适应温度变化的能力，从而延迟了社区崩溃的发生。
