First is the obvious reality that our understanding of traits and phenotypic change is improved when their molecular mechanisms are known. To illuminate the causal chain from individual phenotypes to community and ecosystem functioning, we can gain much by harnessing the power of the genomic revolution. This bidirectional feedback structure now known as ‘eco-evolutionary dynamics’, in which evolutionary and ecological processes each affect the other, has been called the ‘newest synthesis’ in ecology and evolution. This chain of causation goes both ways of course ecosystems, via ecological interactions, exert selective pressure on organisms that results in evolution. This can lead to a cascade of effects from evolutionary change within a single species, through alterations of ecological interactions and community composition, to ecosystem change. When phenotypic variation has dramatic effects on the strengths and qualities of ecological interactions, the properties and functioning of an ecosystem can depend on within-species variation in critical traits. It is well known that community composition has profound effects on ecosystem functioning, yet phenotypic variation within a single species also has the potential to scale up to ecosystem impacts. Here, we highlight the combination of traits and ecological interactions that make Daphnia a definitive model system, focusing on the additional power and capabilities enabled by recent molecular and genomic advances.Īmong the most exciting and significant current challenges in biology is to connect the genetic basis of variation in ecologically important traits with its effects on population, community and ecosystem properties.
Because its ecology is profoundly influenced by both genetic polymorphism and phenotypic plasticity, Daphnia represents a model system with tremendous potential for developing a mechanistic understanding of the relationship between traits at the genetic, organismal and population levels, and consequences for community and ecosystem dynamics. The water flea Daphnia satisfies these criteria, and genomic approaches capitalizing on the pivotal role Daphnia plays in the functioning of pelagic freshwater food webs will enable investigations of eco-evolutionary dynamics in unprecedented detail. Yet to fully explore phenomena that span multiple levels of the biological hierarchy requires model organisms and systems that feature a comprehensive triad of strong ecological interactions in nature, experimental tractability in diverse contexts and accessibility to modern genomic tools. How do genetic variation and evolutionary change in critical species affect the composition and functioning of populations, communities and ecosystems? Illuminating the links in the causal chain from genes up to ecosystems is a particularly exciting prospect now that the feedbacks between ecological and evolutionary changes are known to be bidirectional.
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