Consequences of Plant-Herbivore Coevolution on the Dynamics and Functioning of Ecosystems

The potential consequences of plant–herbivore coevolution for ecosystem functioning are investigated using a simple nutrient-limited ecosystem model in which plant and herbivore traits are subject to adaptive dynamics. Although the ecological model is very simple and always reaches a stable equilibr...

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Published inJournal of theoretical biology Vol. 217; no. 3; pp. 369 - 381
Main Authors LOEUILLE, NICOLAS, LOREAU, MICHEL, FERRIÈRE, RÉEGIS
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Elsevier Ltd 07.08.2002
Subjects
Adaptation, Biological
Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
Animals
Biological Evolution
Ecosystem
Food Chain
Models, Biological
Nutritive Value
Plants - genetics
Quantitative Trait, Heritable
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Summary:The potential consequences of plant–herbivore coevolution for ecosystem functioning are investigated using a simple nutrient-limited ecosystem model in which plant and herbivore traits are subject to adaptive dynamics. Although the ecological model is very simple and always reaches a stable equilibrium in the absence of evolution, coevolution can generate a great diversity of dynamical behaviors. The evolutionary dynamics can lead to a stable equilibrium. If the evolution of plants is fast enough, certain values of the trade-off parameters lead to complex evolutionary cycles bounded by physiological constraints. The dynamical behavior of the model is very different when the dynamics of inorganic nutrient is ignored and plant competition is modeled by a logistic growth function. This emphasizes the importance of including explicit nutrient dynamics in studies of plant–herbivore coevolution.
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ISSN:0022-5193
1095-8541
DOI:10.1006/jtbi.2002.3032