Mutualistic coevolution and community diversity favour persistence in metacommunities under environmental changes.

ABSTRACT: Linking local to regional ecological and evolutionary processes is key to understand the response of Earth's biodiversity to environmental changes. Here we integrate evolution and mutualistic coevolution in a model of metacommunity dynamics and use numerical simulations to understand how coevolution can shape species distribution and persistence in landscapes varying in space and time. Our simulations show that coevolution and species richness can synergistically shape distribution patterns by increasing colonization and reducing extinction of populations in metacommunities. Although conflicting selective pressures emerging from mutualisms may increase mismatches with the local environment and the rate of local extinctions, coevolution increases trait matching among mutualists at the lands

SUBMITTER: Cosmo LG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9832548 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature