Alternate titles: biocenology; biosociology; synecology

The study of coevolution

To understand how coevolution shapes interactions within communities, researchers must distinguish between traits that have coevolved and those that were already present in ancestors before the interspecific interaction began. For example, hummingbirds use their wings and bills to reach the nectar within flowers. A hummingbird with a long bill may have evolved its bill as a result of coevolution with a particular species of flower; however, its wings are not the result of coevolution. Wings were already present in birds before hummingbirds evolved. Therefore, both the evolutionary ecology and the history (phylogeny) of the interacting species must be studied. The phylogeny indicates when each species arose within a lineage and when each new trait made its first appearance. The ecological studies can then show how each of those traits has been shaped by and used under different ecological conditions.

The study of the coevolution between moths of the family Prodoxidae and their host plants illustrates the interplay of phylogeny and ecology. Prodoxid moths include some species that have become major pollinators of plants. These pollinators include yucca moths (of the genera Tegeticula and Parategeticula) and Greya moths (see above Commensalism and other types of interaction). Greya moths inadvertently, or passively, pollinate the flowers they visit, but their close relatives the yucca moths purposely, or actively, perform this function. Female yucca moths collect and carry pollen on specialized appendages attached to their mouthparts. They visit yucca flowers to lay their eggs in the floral ovary, and their offspring feed on the developing seeds. While visiting each flower, a female moth takes some of the pollen she is carrying and places it directly on the stigma of the flower. Her offspring are therefore guaranteed developing seeds on which to feed. The yuccas have evolved to depend solely on these moths for pollination. Unlike many other plant species, they do not produce nectar or any other reward for pollinators and so do not waste energy to attract pollinators. They lose some of their seeds to the yucca moth larvae, but this is the cost of coevolution with this highly efficient pollinator.

Phylogenetic studies have shown that the loss of nectar production in yuccas and the evolution of active pollination in yucca moths are novel traits that have arisen through coevolution, as the relatives of yuccas produce nectar, and the relatives of yucca moths, the Greya moths, do not actively pollinate their host plants. Some other aspects of the interaction make use of traits that did not coevolve between yuccas and yucca moths. Instead, the traits were present in ancestors. Laying eggs in flowers and local specialization to one plant species are two traits that are common to all the close relatives of yucca moths, regardless of the plants on which they feed.

Therefore, by combining ecological and phylogenetic studies, researchers can piece together the history of coevolution between these species. The coevolved mutualism between yuccas and yucca moths began when their ancestors inadvertently became more successful at survival and reproduction as a result of their interactions. Yuccas that did not waste energy on nectar production to attract other pollinators achieved an advantage over those plants that did; yucca moths that ensured the availability of developing seeds for their offspring by actively pollinating the flowers in which they laid their eggs also gained an advantage over populations that did not do so. The process undoubtedly involved many other twists and turns along the way, but the combination of evolutionary ecological and phylogenetic studies allows at least part of the coevolutionary process to be reconstructed.

All coevolved interactions are similar to those between yuccas and yucca moths in that natural selection operates on traits that are already present within species, molding them in new ways by favouring new mutations that fine-tune the relationship. Tinkering rather than engineering is how the biologist François Jacob described the process of evolution, and his analogy certainly extends to the coevolutionary process. Coevolved interactions are not designed from scratch for maximum efficiency. Instead, evolution fiddles with existing structures and behaviours and adapts them to perform new functions—in effect, jury-rigging them. Consequently, the organization of biological communities reflects this makeshift nature of adaptation and coevolution.

The coevolutionary “arms race” versus reduced antagonism

Nothing is absolutely predictable about the direction of coevolution. How an interaction coevolves depends not only on the current genetic makeup of the species involved but also on new mutations that arise, the population characteristics of each species, and the community context in which the interaction takes places. Under some ecological conditions, an antagonistic interaction between two species can coevolve to enhance the antagonism; the species “build up” methods of defense and attack, much like an evolutionary arms race. Under other ecological conditions, however, the antagonism may be lessened, resulting in reduced antagonism.

Predator-prey interactions

In an evolutionary arms race, natural selection progressively escalates the defenses and counterdefenses of the species. The thick calcareous shells of many marine mollusks and the powerful drilling appendages and musculature of their predators are thought to have coevolved through this process of escalation. A similar example of coevolution has occurred in the endemic mollusks and crabs in Lake Tanganyika. The mollusks in this lake have much thicker shells than other freshwater mollusks, and the endemic crab that feeds on them has much larger chelae (pincerlike claws) than other freshwater crabs. Differences between these mollusks and crabs and the freshwater species throughout the world to which they are related appear to be due to coevolution rather than any unique nutrient or mineral conditions in this lake.

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