The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

When everything is not everywhere but species evolve: an alternative method to model adaptive properties of marine ecosystems

When everything is not everywhere but species evolve: an alternative method to model adaptive properties of marine ecosystems
When everything is not everywhere but species evolve: an alternative method to model adaptive properties of marine ecosystems
The functional and taxonomic biogeography of marine microbial systems reflects the current state of an evolving system. Current models of marine microbial systems and biogeochemical cycles do not reflect this fundamental organizing principle. Here, we investigate the evolutionary adaptive potential of marine microbial systems under environmental change and introduce explicit Darwinian adaptation into an ocean modelling framework, simulating evolving phytoplankton communities in space and time. To this end, we adopt tools from adaptive dynamics theory, evaluating the fitness of invading mutants over annual timescales, replacing the resident if a fitter mutant arises. Using the evolutionary framework, we examine how community assembly, specifically the emergence of phytoplankton cell size diversity, reflects the combined effects of bottom-up and top-down controls. When compared with a species-selection approach, based on the paradigm that “Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects”, we show that (i) the selected optimal trait values are similar; (ii) the patterns emerging from the adaptive model are more robust, but (iii) the two methods lead to different predictions in terms of emergent diversity. We demonstrate that explicitly evolutionary approaches to modelling marine microbial populations and functionality are feasible and practical in time-varying, space-resolving settings and provide a new tool for exploring evolutionary interactions on a range of timescales in the ocean.
0142-7873
28-47
Sauterey, Boris
75b0769b-1403-47c0-9f09-95356c9b9ef1
Ward, Ben A.
dbfabfc9-4913-4a26-b794-2b5f8f643a0b
Follows, Michael J.
12c723bc-f2f8-43f4-a309-bff6885b9c7c
Bowler, Chris
138c3382-d258-4ef3-8f5f-e16603c21880
Claessen, David
aa19f919-2cd1-4e9c-8f0c-bd47587b9c94
Sauterey, Boris
75b0769b-1403-47c0-9f09-95356c9b9ef1
Ward, Ben A.
dbfabfc9-4913-4a26-b794-2b5f8f643a0b
Follows, Michael J.
12c723bc-f2f8-43f4-a309-bff6885b9c7c
Bowler, Chris
138c3382-d258-4ef3-8f5f-e16603c21880
Claessen, David
aa19f919-2cd1-4e9c-8f0c-bd47587b9c94

Sauterey, Boris, Ward, Ben A., Follows, Michael J., Bowler, Chris and Claessen, David (2015) When everything is not everywhere but species evolve: an alternative method to model adaptive properties of marine ecosystems. Journal of Plankton Research, 37 (1), 28-47. (doi:10.1093/plankt/fbu078).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The functional and taxonomic biogeography of marine microbial systems reflects the current state of an evolving system. Current models of marine microbial systems and biogeochemical cycles do not reflect this fundamental organizing principle. Here, we investigate the evolutionary adaptive potential of marine microbial systems under environmental change and introduce explicit Darwinian adaptation into an ocean modelling framework, simulating evolving phytoplankton communities in space and time. To this end, we adopt tools from adaptive dynamics theory, evaluating the fitness of invading mutants over annual timescales, replacing the resident if a fitter mutant arises. Using the evolutionary framework, we examine how community assembly, specifically the emergence of phytoplankton cell size diversity, reflects the combined effects of bottom-up and top-down controls. When compared with a species-selection approach, based on the paradigm that “Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects”, we show that (i) the selected optimal trait values are similar; (ii) the patterns emerging from the adaptive model are more robust, but (iii) the two methods lead to different predictions in terms of emergent diversity. We demonstrate that explicitly evolutionary approaches to modelling marine microbial populations and functionality are feasible and practical in time-varying, space-resolving settings and provide a new tool for exploring evolutionary interactions on a range of timescales in the ocean.

Text
Sauterey_2015 - Version of Record
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (1MB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 12 August 2014
Published date: 1 January 2015

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 416858
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/416858
ISSN: 0142-7873
PURE UUID: 58ee2e83-54d9-4f0a-9cc3-bc2d1ad82ec1

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 12 Jan 2018 17:30
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 17:56

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Boris Sauterey
Author: Ben A. Ward
Author: Michael J. Follows
Author: Chris Bowler
Author: David Claessen

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×