Ecological constraints on diversification in a model adaptive radiation

Rees Kassen (), Martin Llewellyn and Paul B. Rainey
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Rees Kassen: University of Oxford
Martin Llewellyn: University of Oxford
Paul B. Rainey: University of Oxford

Nature, 2004, vol. 431, issue 7011, 984-988

Abstract: Abstract Taxonomic diversification commonly occurs through adaptive radiation, the rapid evolution of a single lineage into a range of genotypes or species each adapted to a different ecological niche1,2. Radiation size (measured as the number of new types) varies widely between phylogenetically distinct taxa2,3,4 and between replicate radiations within a single taxon where the ecological opportunities available seem to be identical5,6. Here we show how variation in energy input (productivity) and environmental disturbance combine to determine the extent of diversification in a single radiating lineage of Pseudomonas fluorescens adapting to laboratory conditions. Diversity peaked at intermediate rates of both productivity and disturbance and declined towards the extremes in a manner reminiscent of well-known ecological patterns7,8,9. The mechanism responsible for the decrease in diversity arises from pleiotropic fitness costs associated with niche specialization10,11, the effects of which are modulated by gradients of productivity and disturbance. Our results indicate that ecological gradients may constrain the size of adaptive radiations, even in the presence of the strong diversifying selection associated with ecological opportunity, by decoupling evolutionary diversification from ecological coexistence.

Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1038/nature02923

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