One-sided population decline triggers eco-evolutionary interaction disinvestment in a 2-species mutualistic system

Description

The decreasing abundance of one mutualistic partner might force its interactor to invest less in the interaction to reduce energy waste at the cost of accelerating the initial partner decline. We ask under which conditions such self-reinforcing feedback occurs in mutualistic systems with one declining partner. We address these questions using a mathematical model and adaptive dynamics tools. We observe that when both partners are co-evolving, the undisturbed population disinvests first, forcing the declining population to disinvest as well, in favour of other energy sources. A decelerated decline can occur if the adaptation of the undisturbed partner is too slow compared to the environmental change, reducing the speed of its disinvestment, or if the initial investment into the interaction was very high. Our results suggest the importance of considering interaction partners and their interaction type and strength, when planning restoration attempts to save a target population.

Period	2024 Mar 13
Event title	Nordic Oikos 2024: New perspectives in ecological and evolutionary research
Event type	Conference
Location	Lund, SwedenShow on map