A 7000-year record of floods and ecological feedbacks in Weeks Bay, Alabama, USA

Destabilizing evolutionary and eco-evolutionary feedbacks drive empirical eco-evolutionary cycles

10.1101/488759 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michael H. Cortez ◽

Swati Patel ◽

Sebastian J. Schreiber

Keyword(s):

Steady State ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

System Stability ◽

Evolutionary Models ◽

Sustained Oscillations ◽

Ecological Feedbacks

ABSTRACTWe develop a method to identify how ecological, evolutionary, and eco-evolutionary feedbacks influence system stability. We apply our method to nine empirically-parameterized eco-evolutionary models of exploiter-victim systems from the literature and identify which particular feedbacks cause some systems to converge to a steady state or to exhibit sustained oscillations. We find that ecological feedbacks involving the interactions between all species and evolutionary and eco-evolutionary feedbacks involving only the interactions between exploiter species (predators or pathogens) are typically stabilizing. In contrast, evolutionary and eco-evolutionary feedbacks involving the interactions between victim species (prey or hosts) are destabilizing more often than not. We also find that while eco-evolutionary feedbacks rarely altered system stability from what would be predicted from just ecological and evolutionary feedbacks, eco-evolutionary feedbacks have the potential to alter system stability at faster or slower speeds of evolution. As the number of empirical studies demonstrating eco-evolutionary feedbacks increases, we can continue to apply these methods to determine whether the patterns we observe are common in other empirical communities.

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A statistical evaluation of the origin of cypress domes in Florida

10.26686/wgtn.12985979 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Eron Raines

Keyword(s):

Striking Similarity ◽

Geologic History ◽

Parameter Spaces ◽

Surface Areas ◽

Biological Explanation ◽

Starting Conditions ◽

History Of ◽

Cypress Domes ◽

Ecological Feedbacks ◽

Globally Distributed

Two competing explanations exist for the origin of one type of karstic landform found in Florida called the cypress dome. One explanation relies on complex ecological feedbacks stemming from nutrient cycling suggesting biota contribute more significantly to processes of landscape evolution in Florida than anywhere else in the world. The second explanation is that the landforms are sinkholes that completely preclude the biological explanation while fitting more parsimoniously with the surrounding geological narrative. This work puts forward geostatistical analyses and a model linking the landforms to sinkholes, thus bolstering the geological explanation for origin of the landform. Satellite imagery of sinkholes occurring in limestone from locations spanning the planet was analyzed. Measurements of globally distributed limestone sinkhole surface areas are best characterized by an exponential distribution indicating sinkhole formation is robust to starting conditions (i.e., climate, tectonics). This observation is supported by an analysis of sinkhole geometry and geospatial dispersion. This demonstrates the geospatial parameters space for globally distributed groups of sinkholes forming in limestone are statistically indistinguishable despite sinkhole formation in different climates, tectonic regimes, and at different times. Employing this observation as a tool, sinkholes are directly compared to the cypress domes in Florida and are found to be statistically indistinguishable. From the striking similarity in spatial parameter spaces in conjunction with the geologic history of the area, it is interpreted that these landforms originate through geologic, not biologic, processes.

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Comparison of Two Hydrodynamic Models of Weeks Bay, Alabama

Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2012 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ◽

10.1007/978-3-642-31075-1_44 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 589-598 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Vladimir J. Alarcon ◽

William H. McAnally ◽

Surendra Pathak

Keyword(s):

Hydrodynamic Models ◽

Weeks Bay

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Bidirectional interactions between host social behaviour and parasites arise through ecological and evolutionary processes

Parasitology ◽

10.1017/s0031182020002048 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-15

Author(s):

Dana M. Hawley ◽

Amanda K. Gibson ◽

Andrea K. Townsend ◽

Meggan E. Craft ◽

Jessica F. Stephenson

Keyword(s):

Social Interactions ◽

Social Behaviour ◽

Population Level ◽

Parasite Infection ◽

Evolutionary Processes ◽

Ecological Patterns ◽

Ecological Feedbacks ◽

Host Parasite ◽

Bidirectional Interactions ◽

Social Behaviours

Abstract An animal's social behaviour both influences and changes in response to its parasites. Here we consider these bidirectional links between host social behaviours and parasite infection, both those that occur from ecological vs evolutionary processes. First, we review how social behaviours of individuals and groups influence ecological patterns of parasite transmission. We then discuss how parasite infection, in turn, can alter host social interactions by changing the behaviour of both infected and uninfected individuals. Together, these ecological feedbacks between social behaviour and parasite infection can result in important epidemiological consequences. Next, we consider the ways in which host social behaviours evolve in response to parasites, highlighting constraints that arise from the need for hosts to maintain benefits of sociality while minimizing fitness costs of parasites. Finally, we consider how host social behaviours shape the population genetic structure of parasites and the evolution of key parasite traits, such as virulence. Overall, these bidirectional relationships between host social behaviours and parasites are an important yet often underappreciated component of population-level disease dynamics and host–parasite coevolution.

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Breaking new ground in food regime theory: corporate environmentalism, ecological feedbacks and the ‘food from somewhere’ regime?

Agriculture and Human Values ◽

10.1007/s10460-009-9215-8 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 26 (4) ◽

pp. 309-319 ◽

Cited By ~ 142

Author(s):

Hugh Campbell

Keyword(s):

Regime Theory ◽

Food Regime ◽

Corporate Environmentalism ◽

Ecological Feedbacks

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Delayed behavioural shifts undermine the sustainability of social–ecological systems

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2017.1192 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 284 (1868) ◽

pp. 20171192 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

A.-S. Lafuite ◽

C. de Mazancourt ◽

M. Loreau

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Natural Habitat ◽

Sustainable Consumption ◽

Ecological Systems ◽

Habitat Destruction ◽

Social Ecological Systems ◽

Social Ecological ◽

Ecological Feedbacks ◽

Mixed Equilibria

Natural habitat destruction and fragmentation generate a time-delayed loss of species and associated ecosystem services. As social–ecological systems (SESs) depend on a range of ecosystem services, lagged ecological dynamics may affect their long-term sustainability. Here, we investigate the role of consumption changes for sustainability, under a time-delayed ecological feedback on agricultural production. We use a stylized model that couples the dynamics of biodiversity, technology, human demography and compliance with a social norm prescribing sustainable consumption. Compliance with the sustainable norm reduces both the consumption footprint and the vulnerability of SESs to transient overshoot-and-collapse population crises. We show that the timing and interaction between social, demographic and ecological feedbacks govern the transient and long-term dynamics of the system. A sufficient level of social pressure (e.g. disapproval) applied on the unsustainable consumers leads to the stable coexistence of unsustainable and sustainable or mixed equilibria, where both defectors and conformers coexist. Under bistability conditions, increasing extinction debts reduces the resilience of the system, thus favouring abrupt regime shifts towards unsustainable pathways. Given recent evidence of large extinction debts, such results call for farsightedness and a better understanding of time delays when studying the sustainability of coupled SESs.

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