"Adaptation to biotic versus abiotic change - navigating conflicting selection pressures in competitive communities"Leoz, SimonIn the context of escalating global change, understanding how species within a community adapt to environmental conditions is crucial. Previous studies have shown adaptation of single species to environmental change (e.g. increasing temperatures or water salinity in aquatic ecosystems) as well as to species interactions (e.g. interspecific competition or predation). However, fewer studies consider the potential complexity of co-evolutionary responses to environmental change within a community. Here, we develop a mathematical model to assess competitive interactions of two species along environmental change. We implement a trade-off between species’ adaptability to varying competition and environmental conditions, to account for their limited energy and choice of where to allocate this investment. Varying the shape and convexity of this trade-off function allows us to investigate how species' ecological strategies evolve in response to conflicting selection pressures. We hypothesize that competitive dynamics will depend on the strength of the trade-off and will favour adapatation to the environment under rapid environmental change, and adaptation to competition under slow environmental change. Additionally, our analysis aims to reveal how changes in the convexity of the trade-off function influence the stability and persistence of ecological communities. Our study consequently sets the stage for exploring more complex community dynamics, extending our understanding of community responses to abiotic and biotic environment. |
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