The Implications of Eco-Evolutionary Processes for the Emergence of Marine Plankton Community Biogeography
Abstract
Models of community assembly have been used to illustrate how the many functionally diverse species that compose plankton food webs can coexist. However, the evolutionary processes leading to the emergence of plankton food webs and their interplay with migratory processes and spatial heterogeneity are yet to be explored. We study the eco-evolutionary dynamics of a modeled plankton community structured in both size and space and physiologically constrained by empirical data. We demonstrate that a complex yet ecologically and evolutionarily stable size-structured food web can emerge from an initial set of two monomorphic phytoplankton and zooplankton populations. We also show that the coupling of spatial heterogeneity and migration results in the emergence of specific biogeographic patterns: (i) the emergence of a source-sink structure of the plankton metacommunities, (ii) changes in size diversity dependent on migratory intensity and on the scale at which diversity is considered (local vs. global), and (iii) the emergence of eco-evolutionary provinces (i.e., a spatial unit characterized by some level of abiotic heterogeneity but of homogenous size composition due to horizontal movements) at spatial scales that increase with the strength of the migratory processes.
Related
- Emergence of vancomycin-resistant and multidrug-resistant Enterococcus spp. in freshwater aquaculture systems of southeastern Nigeria: implications for one health surveillance
- The evolutionary processes of bacterial aromatic polyketide ketosynthases.
- Mental Health Conditions as Processes: Developmental Features and Clinical Implications
- [Knowledge, attitudes and misinformation about institutional breastfeeding support in a university community: Implications for primary and community care].
- Exome-based Preconception Carrier Screening for the Mexican Jewish Community; Yields and Implications
BibTeX
@article{sauterey2026implications,
title = {{The Implications of Eco-Evolutionary Processes for the Emergence of Marine Plankton Community Biogeography}},
author = {Boris Sauterey and Ben Ward and Jonathan Rault and Chris Bowler and David Claessen},
journal = {The American Naturalist},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1086/692067},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-04201876v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - The Implications of Eco-Evolutionary Processes for the Emergence of Marine Plankton Community Biogeography
AU - Boris Sauterey
AU - Ben Ward
AU - Jonathan Rault
AU - Chris Bowler
AU - David Claessen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/06
JO - The American Naturalist
DO - 10.1086/692067
UR - https://hal.science/hal-04201876v1
AB - Models of community assembly have been used to illustrate how the many functionally diverse species that compose plankton food webs can coexist. However, the evolutionary processes leading to the emergence of plankton food webs and their interplay with migratory processes and spatial heterogeneity are yet to be explored. We study the eco-evolutionary dynamics of a modeled plankton community structured in both size and space and physiologically constrained by empirical data. We demonstrate that a complex yet ecologically and evolutionarily stable size-structured food web can emerge from an initial set of two monomorphic phytoplankton and zooplankton populations. We also show that the coupling of spatial heterogeneity and migration results in the emergence of specific biogeographic patterns: (i) the emergence of a source-sink structure of the plankton metacommunities, (ii) changes in size diversity dependent on migratory intensity and on the scale at which diversity is considered (local vs. global), and (iii) the emergence of eco-evolutionary provinces (i.e., a spatial unit characterized by some level of abiotic heterogeneity but of homogenous size composition due to horizontal movements) at spatial scales that increase with the strength of the migratory processes.
SN - 0003-0147
SN - 1537-5323
ER -