Contemporary Ecological Interactions Improve Models of Past Trait Evolution.

Syst Biol

Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand.

Published: September 2018

AI Article Synopsis

  • The text discusses how evolutionary models often overlook the role that ecological interactions, like those between hawkmoths and flowering plants, can have on the evolution of traits.
  • It introduces a modified version of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model to analyze how plant corolla depth and moth-plant interactions affect hawkmoth proboscis length.
  • The findings suggest that including these contemporary interactions offers a more accurate understanding of trait evolution than traditional models, highlighting the importance of integrating ecological data into evolutionary studies.

Article Abstract

Despite the fact that natural selection underlies both traits and interactions, evolutionary models often neglect that ecological interactions may, and in many cases do, influence the evolution of traits. Herein, we explore the interdependence of ecological interactions and functional traits in the pollination associations of hawkmoths and flowering plants. Specifically, we develop an adaptation of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model of trait evolution that allows us to study the influence of plant corolla depth and observed hawkmoth-plant interactions on the evolution of hawkmoth proboscis length. Across diverse modelling scenarios, we find that the inclusion of contemporary interactions can provide a better description of trait evolution than the null expectation. Moreover, we show that the pollination interactions provide more-likely models of hawkmoth trait evolution when interactions are considered at increasingly fine-scale groups of hawkmoths. Finally, we demonstrate how the results of best-fit modeling approaches can implicitly support the association between interactions and trait evolution that our method explicitly examines. In showing that contemporary interactions can provide insight into the historical evolution of hawkmoth proboscis length, we demonstrate the clear utility of incorporating additional ecological information to models designed to study past trait evolution.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syy012DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

trait evolution
24
ecological interactions
12
interactions provide
12
interactions
10
evolution
9
evolution hawkmoth
8
hawkmoth proboscis
8
proboscis length
8
contemporary interactions
8
trait
6

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!