Abstract
In ecology and evolution, the primary challenge in understanding the processes that shape biodiversity is to assess the relationship between the phenotypic traits of organisms and the environment. Here we tested for selection on physio-morphological traits measured by scanning flow-cytometry at the individual level in phytoplankton communities under a temporally changing biotic and abiotic environment. Our aim was to study how high-frequency temporal changes in the environment influence biodiversity dynamics in a natural community. We focused on a spring bloom in Lake Zurich (Switzerland), characterized by rapid changes in phytoplankton, water conditions, nutrients and grazing (mainly mediated by herbivore ciliates). We described bloom dynamics in terms of taxonomic and trait-based diversity and found that diversity dynamics of trait-based groups were more pronounced than those of identified phytoplankton taxa. We characterized the linkage between measured phytoplankton traits, abiotic environmental factors and abundance of the main grazers and observed weak but significant correlations between changing abiotic and biotic conditions and measured size-related and fluorescence-related traits. We tested for deviations in observed community-wide distributions of focal traits from random patterns and found evidence for both clustering and even spacing of traits, occurring sporadically over the time series. Patterns were consistent with environmental filtering and phenotypic divergence under herbivore pressure, respectively. Size-related traits showed significant even spacing during the peak of herbivore abundance, suggesting that morphology-related traits were under selection from grazing. Pigment distribution within cells and colonies appeared instead to be associated with acclimation to temperature and water chemistry. We found support for trade-offs among grazing resistance and environmental tolerance traits, as well as for substantial periods of dynamics in which our measured traits were not under selection.
Highlights
The study of trait-environment relationships is fundamental for understanding the evolution of phenotypic characters and ecological dynamics among species
Spring Bloom Dynamics in Lake Zurich We observed the onset of phytoplankton growth when the surface water temperature reached 7uC
The bloom was initially characterized by a shallow Chl-a maximum (2 to 3 meters), which increased in magnitude and depth along with the progression of bloom dynamics (Fig. 1C)
Summary
The study of trait-environment relationships is fundamental for understanding the evolution of phenotypic characters and ecological dynamics among species. Trait-based approaches focus on the phenotypic traits of individuals, populations or species to understand structure and functioning of natural communities [6,7,8]. Trait-based approaches provide the opportunity to study factors that determine changes in community structure and functioning, or infer potential mechanisms of selection in complex communities by comparing observed trait patterns to predictions from theory [4,6,10,11,12] (Table 1). For example, that when selection by abiotic environmental filters is in operation on a trait associated with habitat specificity, its community-wide distribution would converge on similar values (mean trait values of species would be shifting to the same direction), or filtering would reduce the range of the trait distribution [11,13,14] (Table 1). A clustered pattern in the distribution of habitat-related traits, can be obtained when strong negative interactions (like competition) lead to species exclusion (e.g. reducing community trait range) [4]
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