Wednesday, August 6, 2008 - 8:10 AM

SYMP 10-1: Fundamental changes in metacommunity dynamics through evolution

Richard Gomulkiewicz, Washington State University, Michael Hochberg, ISEM, University of Montpellier II, and Scott Nuismer, University of Idaho.

Background/Question/Methods
Although coevolution and migration can sometimes combine to produce unexpected synergistic effects on the composition of local and regional communities, it is not known how often it is necessary to consider the joint of effects of these processes---above and beyond their added separate effects---for predicting local and metacommunity dynamics.  We address this by analyzing mathematical models of the joint evolutionary and population dynamics of an open community.
Results/Conclusions
Preliminary results show no indication that coevolution and migration have joint effects on community dynamics that cannot be predicted by their separate effects.  This suggests that highly nonlinear effects of evolution and migration on community dynamics require, at a minimum, more intricate ecological or genetic assumptions than used in our models.