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Consumer-resource dynamics is an eco-evolutionary process in a natural plankton community

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 3, pages 1351–1358 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

When traits affecting species interactions evolve rapidly, ecological dynamics can be altered while they occur. These eco-evolutionary dynamics have been documented repeatedly in laboratory and mesocosm experiments. We show here that they are also important for understanding community functioning in a natural ecosystem. Daphnia is a major planktonic consumer influencing seasonal plankton dynamics in many lakes. It is also sensitive to succession in its phytoplankton food, from edible algae in spring to relatively inedible cyanobacteria in summer. We show for Daphnia mendotae in Oneida Lake, New York, United States, that within-year ecological change in phytoplankton (from spring diatoms, cryptophytes and greens to summer cyanobacteria) resulted in consumers evolving increasing tolerance to cyanobacteria over time. This evolution fed back on ecological seasonal changes in population abundance of this major phytoplankton consumer. Oneida Lake is typical of mesotrophic lakes broadly, suggesting that eco-evolutionary consumer-resource dynamics is probably common.

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Fig. 1: Seasonal dynamics of Oneida Lake plankton in 2015 compared with stereotypical PEG model.
Fig. 2: Frequencies of D. mendotae clones in Oneida Lake 2015.
Fig. 3: Performance of Oneida Lake D. mendotae clones on spring and summer food.
Fig. 4: Evolution of Daphnia population mean JGR on the basis of clone-specific JGR values and seasonal phytoplankton composition.
Fig. 5: The projected effect on Daphnia population dynamics of its evolution in response to changing edibility of the phytoplankton food resource.

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Data availability

The data underlying each of the figures and statistical analyses are freely available online at eCommons: Cornell University’s digital repository45 (https://doi.org/10.7298/pgzv-2736).

Code availability

R scripts for R-generated statistical analyses and figures are freely available online at eCommons: Cornell University’s digital repository45 (https://doi.org/10.7298/pgzv-2736).

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Acknowledgements

Sample preparation for microsatellite DNA sequencing was carried out by E. Keller and S. Bogdanowicz advised on interpretation of genotype data. J. Geyer, D. Oden and A. Wong helped in the laboratory and field. W. Lampert contributed insights to the JGR measure. P. McIntyre, R. Wilkins, K. Sirianni, L. Zarri, E. Larson and members of the Hairston–Flecker laboratory groups provided helpful comments on the manuscript. The research was supported by US National Science Foundation grant no. DEB-1256719 to N.G.H., S.P.E. and B.E.M., KU Leuven Research Fund grant no. C16/2017/02 to L.D.M., a Research Foundation–Flanders travel grant and Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology PhD fellowship to L.G. and by Doris Duke Foundation internship funding to E.F. The CBFS and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation supported field sampling and processing.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Lindsay R. Schaffner, Lynn Govaert.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Lindsay R. Schaffner, Stephen P. Ellner, Eliza Fairchild & Nelson G. Hairston Jr

  2. Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Lynn Govaert & Luc De Meester

  3. Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Eawag, Switzerland

    Lynn Govaert, Piet Spaak & Nelson G. Hairston Jr

  4. Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Lynn Govaert

  5. Department of Biology, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Brooks E. Miner

  6. Department of Natural Resources & Cornell Biological Field Station, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Lars G. Rudstam

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Contributions

B.E.M., S.P.E. and N.G.H. conceived the study. L.R.S., B.E.M. and N.G.H. designed the field sampling; E.F., L.R.S. and L.G.R. and his laboratory carried it out. L.R.S. and N.G.H. designed the laboratory experiment and L.R.S. carried it out. P.S. and his laboratory did the microsatellite DNA sequencing. B.E.M. and L.R.S. analysed the microsatellite data to calculate genotype frequencies. N.G.H., L.R.S., L.G., L.D.M and S.P.E. analysed the experimental results. The first draft was written by L.R.S. and N.G.H. All authors contributed to revisions of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nelson G. Hairston Jr.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–3 and Supplementary Table 1.

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Schaffner, L.R., Govaert, L., De Meester, L. et al. Consumer-resource dynamics is an eco-evolutionary process in a natural plankton community. Nat Ecol Evol 3, 1351–1358 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0960-9

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