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| Author(s): |
Leandro Giacobelli Cosmo
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências (IBIOC/SB) |
| Defense date: | 2023-08-28 |
| Examining board members: |
Paulo Roberto Guimaraes Junior;
Felipe Wanderley Amorim;
Carolina Reigada Montoya
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| Advisor: | Paulo Roberto Guimaraes Junior |
| Abstract | |
Mutualistic interactions - ecological interactions with a net positive effect to both interacting species - are one of the major forces that sustains many of Earth\'s richest ecosystems. Yet, understanding how does mutualistic interactions shape Earth\'s biodiversity is challenging for three main reasons. First, in mutualistic communities from dozen to thousands of species interact forming mutualistic networks. Second, these mutualistic interactions can give rise to reciprocal selective pressures between interacting species, resulting in reciprocal evolutionary changes - coevolution. Coevolution is a key process that drive species traits that, ultimately, mediate the net effect of mutualistic interactions on the main biological currency that determines the persistence of species: the fitness of its individuals, i.e. the ability of the individuals of a given species to survive and reproduce. Third, the effects of coevolution on the average fitness and persistence of species can manifest across different ecological scales, for instance, across different spatial scales. Here, we tackle these challenges to understand how coevolution in mutualistic networks shape the average fitness and persistence of species across different spatial scales. We first show that in local mutualistic networks the direct evolutionary effects between species can cascade and indirectly affect other species in the network. These indirect effects hinder the ability of species to adapt to both mutualistic partners and other sources of selective pressures in the environment, shaping species average fitness. Then, we proceeded to integrate mutualistic coevolution at a local scale, with the colonization and extinction dynamics of metacommunities at a regional scale. Our results show that local mutualistic coevolution can homogenize species traits across landscapes, facilitating colonization, range expansions and persistence even when species are maldapted to the local abiotic environment. Together, our results show that coevolution in mutualistic networks can be a major force that shape the average fitness and persistence of species across different spatial scales. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 19/22146-3 - How does differences in generation times affects coevolution in ecological networks? |
| Grantee: | Leandro Giacobelli Cosmo |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |