Trends in Ecology & Evolution
ReviewUpward Adaptive Radiation Cascades: Predator Diversification Induced by Prey Diversification
Section snippets
Adaptive Radiation and Coevolutionary Diversification
Much of the rich biodiversity found on our planet is the consequence of bursts of diversification that are associated with the rapid origin of new species and a diversity of ecological functions, referred to as adaptive radiation 1, 2, 3. Species interactions are important in adaptive radiations, and theory, micro- and macroevolutionary studies, and paleontological data all suggest that selection arising from predator–prey interactions can strongly influence diversification in the prey 4, 5, 6,
Potential Processes Involved in Radiation Cascades
The evolution of more diverse prey phenotypes should increase potential niche diversity for predators. There are three possible outcomes for the response of predators to such ecological diversification of prey (Figure 1). First, predators may continue to feed primarily on only one of the phenotypes (Figure 1A). Second, predators may evolve a generalist strategy from a more specialist strategy as they track the expanding phenotypic diversity of their prey (Figure 1B). Finally, predators may
Upwards Adaptive Radiation Cascades from Plants to Phytophagous Insects and Their Natural Enemies
Diversification and speciation among primary producers may affect resource accessibility for a range of different herbivores [10]. In the course of their evolutionary history, flowering plants have evolved different combinations of defense traits, often arranged as so-called defense syndromes [39]. Individual species of phytophagous insects often adapt to the defense of a single plant species because specialization towards overcoming a single defense combination can be a superior evolutionary
Likely Upwards Radiation Cascades in Aquatic Ecosystems
In lakes, habitat-associated niche specialization in fish at lower trophic levels is well documented, and is often associated with divergence in feeding-related adaptations between habitats, such as the pelagic and the littoral or profundal benthic zone 23, 49. Although not yet studied extensively 50, 51, 52, there is good reason to expect that such diversification at lower trophic levels impacts on the evolution of larger predatory fish, causing upwards adaptive radiation cascades. Four
Not Every Predator Adaptive Radiation Is the Consequence of an Upwards Radiation Cascade
Upwards adaptive radiation cascades are characterized by eco-evolutionary interactions between predators and their prey at or around the time of diversification. This is independent of whether diversification is recent or took place anciently. In the model of Ehrlich and Raven, plants diversified their defenses because herbivorous insects exerted strong selection, and in turn this exerted selection on insects to overcome the defenses [10]. When predator and prey lineages did not both exist, or
Radiation Cascades: Summary of What Is Known
The examples we have provided may serve as an indication of the existence of upwards radiation cascades in fish predator–prey systems, and add to the previously documented insect and insect–plant cases. We have chosen examples that vary in the extent of evolutionary diversification. We are not implying that such cascades are ubiquitous in nature, and we would expect to find many negative examples paralleling what has been described for diverging herbivorous insects and their natural enemies [48]
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2019, Trends in Ecology and EvolutionCitation Excerpt :These or similar models may also help to highlight situations where avoidance does not occur because prey cannot perceive risk (e.g., a novel predator that prey do not recognize) [21] or because novelty modifies the costs and benefits of avoidance (e.g., prey that have access to food subsidies) [38]. Antipredator defenses represent diverse adaptations to predator–prey coevolutionary arms races [62], but novelty can create mismatches in predator and prey tactics by changing the efficacy of predator attacks (e.g., ‘novel weapons’) and the efficacy of prey defenses (e.g., access to refuge habitat). For example, climate change may affect the speed of predator movement [63,64], or predators may learn to exploit changes in habitat structure by trapping prey against human-made structures [63].
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