Chemicals and eco-evolutionary dynamics shaping communities

• Applicant: Dr. Ana del Arco
• Subject Area: Hydrogeology, Hydrology, Limnology, Urban Water Management, Water Chemistry, Integrated Water Resources Management
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 445857045

There is growing evidence for the interplay of ecology and evolution on the same time scales shaping community responses to perturbations and changes in the environment. However, little is known about how stressors (such as chemicals) influence eco-evolutionary dynamics, so then community changes. The study of chemical-driven eco-evolutionary dynamics are crucial to understand a community’s capacity to adapt to environmental changes. In this project, I aim to determine the role of chemical exposure on eco-evolutionary dynamics in disturbed communities and the consequences for community changes (rescue, mask, diverge) at the structural and functional level. I will combine chemostat experiments and experimental assays to manipulate chemical exposure and study the occurrence of eco-evolutionary dynamics in a microbial community. Furthermore, I plan to evaluate changes in community structure and function under repeated chemical exposure and study the underlying mechanism in detail by manipulating the potential for ecology and evolution to occur. I will use a model microbial community consisting of a protist as host, its virus, a virophage and a prey bacterium for the protist. Following community dynamics in disturbed and undisturbed environments and follow ecological (population dynamics, community structure and function) and evolutionary changes (host resistance, virus infectivity and bacteria defense) over time will allow me to evaluate the interplay of ecology and evolution and the role of the chemical stressor on the overall community dynamics, structure and function. The findings of this project will contribute to the understanding of the community’s capacity to buffer environmental changes and the distinct roles of ecology and evolution in these responses.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Lutz Becks; Matthias Fischer, Ph.D.