Ecological opportunity and predator-prey interactions: linking eco-evolutionary processes and diversification in adaptive radiations.

ABSTRACT: Much of life's diversity has arisen through ecological opportunity and adaptive radiations, but the mechanistic underpinning of such diversification is not fully understood. Competition and predation can affect adaptive radiations, but contrasting theoretical and empirical results show that they can both promote and interrupt diversification. A mechanistic understanding of the link between microevolutionary processes and macroevolutionary patterns is thus needed, especially in trophic communities. Here, we use a trait-based eco-evolutionary model to investigate the mechanisms linking competition, predation and adaptive radiations. By combining available micro-evolutionary theory and simulations of adaptive radiations we show that intraspecific competition is crucial for diversification as

SUBMITTER: Pontarp M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5879621 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature