One of the main challenges still confronting biologists is unravelling the mechanismsunderlying the evolution of evolvability — the ability to produce heritable and adaptive phenotypic variation. The impact of ecological factors on evolvability remains largely unstudied. Ecological interactions among populations are a relevant ecological factor shaping biodiversity through coevolution, i.e. the reciprocal adaptation resulting from these interactions. This study adopts a community-wide approach to investigate how the complexity of interaction networks and degree (the number of interacting partners of each species) affect evolvability. Quantifying these metrics represents a monumental practical challenge, which is overcome by harnessing a digital life platform that simulates the coevolutionary process of hosts and their parasites. I found that more evolvable communities are those embedded in a more complex network of interactions. However, within each community, a wide range of evolvability values coexist; an observation not related to specific differences in degree. These results emphasise the role of ecological networks of interaction in shaping evolvability.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-528308 |
| Date | January 1900 |
| Creators | Espluga Garcia, Bernat |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för biologisk grundutbildning |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess, info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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