Wednesday, August 6, 2008: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
102 C, Midwest Airlines Center
SYMP 10 - The Evolutionary Ecology of Metacommunities
The metacommunity framework has contributed significantly to our knowledge of population, community, and ecosystems ecology by incorporating regional dispersal dynamics into explanations for local community patterns. To date, however, the metacommunity concept has been evaluated in a purely ecological context and has neglected the potential contributions from evolutionary dynamics. Nevertheless, close parallels and obvious interrelations exist between ecological and evolutionary dynamics at multiple spatial scales. In this symposium, we would bring together emerging research that evaluates how jointly operating ecological and evolutionary mechanisms determine community and metacommunity dynamics. This synthesis is needed because dispersing individuals not only alter local ecological properties such as species abundances and community composition, but also evolutionary trajectories, by simultaneously providing new genetic material and altering existing selective regimes. As a result, immigration and gene flow often have emergent, non-additive effects on community structure through complex interactions between demography and evolution. Theoretical and empirical research is now available that sheds light on interactions between ecological and evolutionary mechanisms in a metacommunity. We aim to highlight this emerging research in an integrated manner in our symposium. We will first introduce the overall framework for understanding the evolutionary ecology of metacommunities, its assumptions, and its potential for enhanced understanding in ecology. Next, we will showcase novel theoretical work on how evolutionary dynamics can strongly influence the dynamics of community assembly and the resultant structure of communities. Topics addressed in this theoretical segment would include new theory on evolutionary dynamics in patch-dynamics metacommunity models, the evolution of specialization in networks of mutualistic interactions, the interaction between priority effects and evolution in community assembly, the evolution of neutral and niche-based species interactions, and the relative roles of species sorting and evolution in determining the effects of climate change on species diversity. In the second part of the symposium, we would focus on emerging empirical evidence for how evolution shapes metacommunity properties, including how evolutionary feedbacks shape community dynamics in experimental zooplankton communities, how multi-level selection operates in metacommunities, the roles of evolution and gene flow in promoting coexistence in microcosms, and how phylogenetic information can be integrated into studies of metacommunity processes. We would end with an open discussion of the future research needs of developing a more complete understanding of the evolutionary ecology of metacommunities.
Organizer:	Mathew A. Leibold, University of Texas at Austin
Co-organizer:	Mark C. Urban, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
Moderator:	Robert D. Holt, University of Florida
8:00 AM			Introductory Remarks
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, Scott Nuismer, University of Idaho
8:30 AM	SYMP 10-2		Evolution of specialization in (meta)communities Nicolas Loeuille, Universite Paris 6, Priyanga Amarasekare, University of California, Los Angeles, Claire De mazancourt, McGill University
8:50 AM	SYMP 10-3		The metacommunity monopolization effect: Priority effects and evolution shape community assembly Mark C. Urban, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Luc De Meester, University of Leuven, Mathew A. Leibold, University of Texas at Austin, Nicolas Loeuille, Universite Paris 6
9:10 AM	SYMP 10-4		Evolution by neutral and niche-based ecological processes in simulated and real metacommunities Mark A. McPeek, Dartmouth College
9:30 AM	SYMP 10-5		Relative roles of species sorting and evolution for determining biodiversity under climate change Mark Vellend, University of British Columbia, Jon Norberg, Stockholm University, Christopher A. Klausmeier, Michigan State University, Mark C. Urban, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Nicolas Loeuille, Universite Paris 6
9:50 AM			Break
10:00 AM	SYMP 10-6		Testing the feedback of evolution on ecology in zooplankton communities Cathy Duvivier, University of Leuven, Wendy Van Doorslaer, University of Leuven, Luc De Meester, University of Leuven
10:20 AM	SYMP 10-7		Dynamic patterns of fitness and diversity of coevolving hosts and parasitoids within a metacommunity Samantha Forde, University of California Santa Cruz, John N. Thompson, University of California Santa Cruz, Robert D. Holt, University of Florida, Brendan Bohannan, University of Oregon
10:40 AM	SYMP 10-8		Quantifying the interaction between microevolution and metacommunities Jelena H. Pantel, University of Texas at Austin, Pedro R. Peres-Neto, University of Quebec at Montreal, Mathew A. Leibold, University of Texas at Austin
11:00 AM			Discussion

See more of Symposium

See more of The 93rd ESA Annual Meeting (August 3 -- August 8, 2008)