Eco-evolutionary feedback loop in the field: a reciprocal interplay between foraging evolution and ecological community

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26840135
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: UTSUMI Shunsuke 北海道大学, 北方生物圏フィールド科学センター, 准教授 (10642019)
• Research Collaborator: ONODERA Hirono ; YASUGI Masaki ; NAGANO Atsushi ; KUDOH Hiroshi
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 生態－進化フィードバック / 昆虫群集 / 昆虫－植物相互作用 / 迅速な進化 / ヤナギルリハムシ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this study was to examine how complex ecological community and rapid evolution of community members influence each other in the field. I constructed large mesocosms covering mature willow trees, and performed manipulative experiments with insect communities and one of the dominant herbivorous insects, the willow leaf beetle, Plagiodera versicolora. In the leaf beetle, a foraging trait has genetic variation (i.e., specialist which exclusively feeds on new leaves and generalist which show non-preference for leaf-age types). I inoculated leaf beetles populations into the mesocosms by the following three ways: specialist only, generalists only, and both types). As a consequence, community structure of diverse insect species differentially developed on a tree crown, according to the beetle treatment. Furthermore, community divergence could feed back to rapid evolution of the foraging trait of the leaf beetle.

Free Research Field

群集生態学