Evolution can alter ecological interactions
Whenever a group of organisms evolves a new, highly effective adaptation, the outcome of ecological interactions may change, and that change may have a ripple effect that alters the entire community.
For example, if a predator evolves a new way of capturing prey, some prey species may be driven to extinction, while others may decrease in abundance, migrate to other areas, or evolve new ways to cope with the more efficient predator. Similar changes can occur among species that compete for resources.Evolutionary changes that occur over long time scales also affect ecological interactions. For example, the origin and subsequent evolutionary diversification of plants altered the composition and stability of soils, the sources of food available to other organisms, and the cycling of nutrients—each of which had major effects on ecological interactions. By affecting soils, for example, early plants literally helped to build the habitats in which later communities of microorganisms, plants, and animals would eventually live and interact with one another.
More on the topic Evolution can alter ecological interactions:
- Reviewers
- Historical definitions of competition
- A simplified approach to evolution
- Intraspecific competition
- INDEX
- In the previous section, we saw how nutrients undergo biological, chemical, and physical transformations as they are taken up by organisms and released through decomposition, ultimately returning to their original forms (or similar ones).
- Overview of mammary development
- Conclusion
- Fagan Garrett G., Fibiger Linda, Hudson Mark, Trundle Matthew (eds.). The Cambridge World History of Violence. Volume 1: The Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds. Cambridge University Press,2020. — 756 p., 2020
- SUBJECT INDEX