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Ecological specialization under multidimensional trade-offs

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Abstract

Although trade-offs are expected to play an essential role in shaping the diversity in a community, their effects remain relatively nebulous and notoriously difficult to assess. This is especially true when multiple trade-offs of different classes interact, a situation here designated by multidimensional trade-offs. When dealing with single trade-offs, some information can be predicted solely based on their curvature. Does this generalize to when dealing with multidimensional trade-offs? What happens if the trade-offs have opposing curvatures? To address these issues, we develop a resource-based model that encompasses multiple trade-offs mediated by the acquisition and processing of resources. Two distinct classes of trade-offs are assumed: (1) a trade-off among resource uptake rates, (2) a trade-off between the resource uptake rate and yield of the process of conversion of resource into energy. The model considers a spatially structured population of microbial organisms that grow on an arbitrary number of resources. These resources flow into the system at a constant rate and diffuse through the environment. The individuals can adopt a variety of strategies through mutation constrained by trade-offs, which renders the model adaptive. We assess population sizes and levels of ecological specialization. The analysis of the results reveals that when multidimensional trade-offs are considered the classical intuition stemming from single trade-offs does not hold. The outcome can depend significantly not only on the curvature of the trade-offs but also on resource availability.

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Acknowledgements

PRAC acknowledges financial support from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) under Projects Nos. 302569/2018-9 and 406594/2018-0. AA has a fellowship from the program PNPD sponsored by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). The authors declare no conflicts of interest. This manuscript has previously been uploaded as a pre-print in biorXiv 492173; https://doi.org/10.1101/492173.

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  1. Evolutionary Dynamics Lab, Physics Department, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, 50740-560, Brazil

    André Amado & Paulo R. A. Campos

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  1. André Amado
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  2. Paulo R. A. Campos
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Correspondence to Paulo R. A. Campos.

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Amado, A., Campos, P.R.A. Ecological specialization under multidimensional trade-offs. Evol Ecol 33, 769–789 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-019-10013-4

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