Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics: The Predator-Prey Adaptive Play and the Ecological Theater

• Published in: The Yale journal of biology & medicine Vol. 91; no. 4; pp. 481 - 489
• Main Authors: Burak, Mary K, Monk, Julia D, Schmitz, Oswald J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 01.12.2018; YJBM
• Series: Focus: Ecology and Evolution
• Subjects: Animals; Behavior; Biological Evolution; Biomechanics; Climate change; Ecology; Evolution; Food chains; Influence; Metabolism; Models, Biological; Morphology; Phenotypic plasticity; Physiology; Predation; Predator-prey interactions; Predatory Behavior - physiology; Prey; Theater; contemporary evolution; eco-evolutionary dynamics; eco-evolutionary feedback; adaptation; trait; phenotypic plasticity; predator-prey interaction; landscape
• ISSN: 0044-0086; 1551-4056

The emerging field of eco-evolutionary dynamics has demonstrated that both ecological and evolutionary processes can occur contemporaneously. Ecological interactions, such as between predator and prey, are important focal areas where an eco-evolutionary perspective can advance understanding about phenotypically plastic and adaptive evolutionary responses. In predator-prey interactions, both species reciprocally respond and adapt to each other in order to simultaneously ensure resource consumption and predation avoidance. Here we sketch out a way to help unify experimental and analytical approaches to both eco-evolutionary dynamics and predator-prey interactions, with a specific focus on terrestrial systems. We discuss the need to view predator-prey eco-evolutionary dynamics as a perpetually adaptive interplay with constantly shifting pressures and feedbacks, rather than viewing it as driving a set evolutionary trajectory. We then outline our perspective on how to understand eco-evolutionary patterns in a predator-prey context. We propose initiating insight by distinguishing phenotypic plasticity against genetic change ( , "molecular reductionism") and further applying a landscape-scale perspective ( , "landscape holism"). We believe that studying predator-prey interactions under an eco-evolutionary lens can provide insights into how general and, consequently, predictable species' evolutionary responses are to their contemporary environments.