The role of fitness landscapes for eco-evolutionary dynamics of biodiversity and interaction networks

• Applicants: Dr. Korinna Theresa Allhoff; Professor Dr. Frank Schurr
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems ; Evolution and Systematics of Plants and Fungi ; Organismic Interactions, Chemical Ecology and Microbiomes of Plant Systems
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 535569648

The overarching goal of the Project is to (1) understand fitness consequences of biotic interactions across a range of different empirical systems and (2) promote integration of theory and empirical research on the links between biotic interactions and biodiversity. The present proposal plays a key role in this context since it develops theory on how fitness landscapes of biotic interactions affect diversification processes and emergent properties of interaction networks, such as modularity and nestedness. The project will then use this theory for synthesis across empirically-investigated interaction types. To this end, we use a new modelling framework, based on fitness landscapes of biotic interaction as an essential building block. We first investigate eco-evolutionary dynamics within archetypical fitness landscapes, before applying the insights gained from this analysis to the observed fitness landscapes from the empirical FLINT projects. We hypothesize that the relative proportion of antagonistic versus mutualistic regions in the fitness landscape, as well as the shape of these regions, affect diversification processes in predictable ways and hence leave a fingerprint on the resulting network structures. Our research approach combines analytical calculations with numerical simulations, inspired by the mathematical framework of Adaptive Dynamics. We will furthermore establish an international working group of experts in the field who conduct empirical research on the fitness consequences of biotic interactions and/or develop theory on eco-evolutionary interaction networks. The goal of this working group is to critically evaluate and further develop the concept of fitness landscapes of biotic interactions and ist application to biodiversity dynamics. The results gained from this project will thus provide deep mechanistic insights into eco-evolutionary processes within specific systems, but also theory-based synthesis across interaction types.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants