Asymmetric competition impacts evolutionary rescue in a changing environment.

ABSTRACT: Interspecific competition can strongly influence the evolutionary response of a species to a changing environment, impacting the chance that the species survives or goes extinct. Previous work has shown that when two species compete for a temporally shifting resource distribution, the species lagging behind the resource peak is the first to go extinct due to competitive exclusion. However, this work assumed symmetrically distributed resources and competition. Asymmetries can generate differences between species in population sizes, genetic variation and trait means. We show that asymmetric resource availability or competition can facilitate coexistence and even occasionally cause the leading species to go extinct first. Surprisingly, we also find cases where traits evolve in the opposite d

SUBMITTER: Van Den Elzen CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5489721 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature