The Evolutionary Strategies that Shape Ecosystems (eBook)

Philip Grime is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Sheffield where he currently maintains long-term experiments at the Buxton Climate Change Impacts Laboratory in North Derbyshire. As a pioneer of experimental approaches to communities and ecosystems Professor Grime is an elected member of the Dutch and British Royal Societies and was the inaugural recipient in 2011 of the Alexander von Humboldt Medal awarded by the International Association for Vegetation Science. Simon Pierce is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Milan, Italy, and at the time of writing taught plant physiological ecology at the University of Insubria, Varese, Italy. His research encompasses plant community ecology and ecophysiology, and the reproductive biology, cultivation and conservation of terrestrial orchids. During his career he has lived and worked in the Republic of Panama, as an Andrew W. Mellon research fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, for the University of Cambridge, UK. He holds a doctorate from the University of Durham, UK, and a degree from the University of Wales, Bangor.

Preface x

Chapter Summaries xii

Acknowledgements xviii

Introduction 1

1 Evolution and Ecology: a Janus Perspective? 3

Evolutionary biology 3

Ecology 4

The emergence of a science of adaptive strategies 6

Summary 7

2 Primary Strategies: the Ideas 8

MacArthur's 'blurred vision' 9

The mechanism of convergence; trade-offs 10

The theory of r- and K-selection 11

CSR Theory 12

Summary 23

3 Primary Adaptive Strategies in Plants 25

The search for adaptive strategies 26

Theoretical work 26

Measuring variation in plant traits: screening programmes 28

Screening of plant growth rates 29

The Integrated Screening Programme 29

Further trait screening 34

The application of CSR theory 34

Virtual plant strategies 36

Summary 38

4 Primary Adaptive Strategies in Organisms Other Than Plants 40

The architecture of the tree of life 41

r, K and beyond K 42

Empirical evidence for three primary strategies in animals 43

The universal three-way trade-off 44

Mammalia (mammals) 46

Aves (avian therapods) 53

Squamata (snakes and lizards) (with notes on other extant reptile clades) 56

Amphibia (amphibians) 60

Osteichthyes (bony fi shes) 61

Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fi shes) 65

Insecta (insects) 68

Aracnida (spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks) 72

Crustacea (crustaceans) 74

Echinodermata (sea urchins, starfi sh, crinoids, sea cucumbers) 75

Mollusca (snails, clams, squids) 77

Annelida (segmented worms) 79

Cnidaria (corals, sea anemones, jellyfi sh, hydras, sea pens) 81

Eumycota (fungi) (including notes on lichens) 83

Archaea 84

Proteobacteria 86

Firmicutes 87

Cyanobacteria 88

Viruses 90

Extinct groups 94

Universal adaptive strategy theory - the evolution of CSR and beyond K theories 99

First steps towards a universal methodology 100

Summary 103

5 From Adaptive Strategies to Communities 105

Plant communities 106

Productive disturbed communities 107

Productive undisturbed communities 108

Unproductive relatively undisturbed communities 111

Plant community composition 111

The humped-back model 114

Origins 114

Formulation 115

Independent confi rmation and compatibility with new research 116

Species-pools, fi lters and community composition 121

Evidence for the action of twin fi lters 128

Additional mechanisms promoting diversity 132

Genetic diversity, intraspecifi c functional diversity and species diversity 132

Microbial communities 136

The effects of plant strategies on soil microbial communities 139

Facilitation in bacterial communities 141

Coexistence in marine surface waters 142

Novel techniques for investigating microbial adaptive strategies 142

Animal communities 144

Primary producers delimit animal diversity/productivity relationships 145

Twin fi lters and animal community assembly 150

Adaptive radiation and community assembly 154

Summary 160

6 From Strategies to Ecosystems 163

Back to Bayreuth 164

The Darwinian basis of ecosystem assembly 167

How do primary adaptive strategies drive ecosystem functioning? 168

The plant traits that drive ecosystems 169

The propagation of trait infl uences through food chains 176

Complicating factors 178

Ecosystem processes 180

Dominance and mass ratio effects 180

Fluxes and feedbacks between communities 181

Top-down control by herbivores 187

Top-down control by carnivores 189

The key role of eco-evolutionary dynamics 190

Summary 192

7 The Path from Evolution to Ecology 194

What has been learned? 194

What are the implications for conservation and management? 198

Research priorities for the next decade 199

References 202

Organism Index 235

Subject Index 241

"In summary, The Evolutionary Strategies that Shape
Ecosystemsis well-written and stimulating, and encourages its
readers to think about how all the pieces of ecology might fit
together, from the scale of an individual organism to entire
ecosystems. It would make a valuable addition to the library of any
scientist interested in ecological and evolutionary
strategies." (Austral Ecology, 1 October
2013)

"Certainly I have found this a useful way to think about
conservation Management." (British Ecological
Society, 1 April 2013)

"The case studies range from microbes to animals, and even
palaeontology is included in the mix, making the book a very
comprehensive resource for those interested in eco-evolutionary
dynamics." (Teaching Biology, 20 December
2012)

"I recommend this book to people interested in
evolutionary and ecological strategies in ecosystems, to those who
think about universal patterns in organism life history tactics and
also to those who love the challenge of linking ecology and
evolution." (Basic and Applied Ecology, 1
November 2012)

"A significant contribution to the field and a must read
for ecologists. Summing Up: Highly recommended.
Upper-division undergraduates and above."
(Choice, 1 October 2012)