EcoEvoDevoNetwork · Origin and maintenance of biodiversity: An ecological, evolutionary and developmental theory of organisms’ interactions
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-06-01 → 2023-11-01
- EU contribution
- €191,149
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Origin and maintenance of biodiversity: An ecological, evolutionary and developmental theory of organisms’ interactions
Ecological diversification is thought to have given rise to much of the diversity of life on earth. This process, in which a single ancestral population diversifies into ecologically different species that exploit a variety of niches, has produced several diverse adaptive radiations including Darwin's finches, Caribbean anole lizards, and cichlid fishes. To understand the origin of biodiversity, it is therefore fundamental to identify the factors facilitating or constraining ecological diversification. ECO-EVO-DEVO-NETWORK seeks to advance our understanding about how ecological interactions and developmental processes affect ecological diversification. Specifically, it addressed this question in three different contexts: the emergence of predator-prey interactions, the occurrence of alternative reproductive modes, and natural individual variability in mortality.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Ecological interactions are the backbone of ecosystems and play an essential role in the availability of the services they provide. These interactions are to a large extent dictated by the body size of the interacting organisms. Efforts to understand the origin and maintenance of networks of interacting organisms have considered ecological and evolutionary processes in communities based on species-averaged body size. However, this species-centric approach neglects the often dramatic body size changes of organisms during their development. EcoEvoDevoNetwork will for the first time explore how evolutionary, ecological and developmental processes shape the emergence and maintenance of complex networks of interacting organisms, and will investigate how these processes mediate responses to environmental change. The result will open new vistas in complex eco-evolutionary networks and provide tools to assess and monitor the impacts of human activities on ecosystems. The research proposed here will build on recently developed ecological framework that synthesize size-structured models and trophic network models, and will extend it by incorporating evolutionary processes. This extended framework will for the first time explicitly account for processes at three different levels of biological organization: individual, population and community, in an ecological and evolutionary context. The applicant has a strong background in eco-evolutionary dynamics of size-structured populations, and will benefit from the expertise of the supervisor (Dr. C. Melián) in eco-evolutionary networks and statistical modeling during this project. The excellent supervision, infrastructure and facilities at the host institute will ensure the successful execution of this project and will provide a unique opportunity for the applicant to build a strong career in science.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- EIDGENOESSISCHE ANSTALT FUER WASSERVERSORGUNG ABWASSERREINIGUNG UND GEWAESSERSCHUTZ · DubendorfCoordinatorSwitzerland
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union