Evolutionary diversification in stickleback affects ecosystem functioning
Evolutionary diversification in stickleback affects ecosystem functioning
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DOI：
10.1038/nature07974
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发表时间：
2009-04-30
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Schluter, Dolph
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Harmon, Luke J.;Matthews, Blake;Schluter, Dolph
解释进化多样化的生态原因是生物学的一个主要焦点，但令人惊讶的是，很少有人提到进化多样化对生态系统的影响。生态系统中的物种数量及其特征是许多生态系统级过程的关键预测因素，如生产率、生物量封存和分解率（4、5）。在这里，我们展示了短期的生态系统水平的适应性辐射在threespine棘鱼（Gasterosteus aculeatus）在过去的10,000年的影响。这些鱼最近在沿海不列颠哥伦比亚省的几个湖泊中经历了平行的多样化，导致从一个通才祖先形成两个专门的物种（底栖和湖沼）（6）。使用围隔实验，我们证明，这种多样化对生态系统有很强的影响，影响猎物群落结构，总初级生产，和溶解的有机物质的性质，调节系统中的光传输的光谱特性。然而，这些生态系统的影响并没有简单地增加其相对强度的专业化和物种丰富度，相反，它们反映了复杂的和间接的后果，生态系统工程刺鱼。众所周知，生态因素影响适应性辐射（7，8）。我们证明，适应性辐射，即使在很短的时间尺度，可以对生态系统产生深远的影响。
Explaining the ecological causes of evolutionary diversification is a major focus of biology, but surprisingly little has been said about the effects of evolutionary diversification on ecosystems(1-3). The number of species in an ecosystem and their traits are key predictors of many ecosystem-level processes, such as rates of productivity, biomass sequestration and decomposition(4,5). Here we demonstrate short-term ecosystem-level effects of adaptive radiation in the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) over the past 10,000 years. These fish have undergone recent parallel diversification in several lakes in coastal British Columbia, resulting in the formation of two specialized species (benthic and limnetic) from a generalist ancestor(6). Using a mesocosm experiment, we demonstrate that this diversification has strong effects on ecosystems, affecting prey community structure, total primary production, and the nature of dissolved organic materials that regulate the spectral properties of light transmission in the system. However, these ecosystem effects do not simply increase in their relative strength with increasing specialization and species richness; instead, they reflect the complex and indirect consequences of ecosystem engineering by sticklebacks. It is well known that ecological factors influence adaptive radiation(7,8). We demonstrate that adaptive radiation, even over short timescales, can have profound effects on ecosystems.