From genes to ecological networks: evolvability, and species coexistence

Why do some species and some ecological communities adapt more rapidly than others? Our group studies “evolvability” as an ecological and evolutionary property shaped by genetic variation, developmental constraints, complex species interactions, and community structure.

We are interested in how selection acting through competition, mutualism, trophic interactions, and environmental change influences not only trait means but also the capacity of species to evolve. This relates to how the “evolvability” of species propagates through a complex ecological network, thereby impacting the structure of communities over spatial and temporal scales.

This research theme connects evolutionary quantitative genetics, eco-evolutionary dynamics, and coexistence and complexity-stability theory. We ask how additive genetic variance, functional epistasis, intraspecific variation, and life-history and stage-structure shape persistence in ecological communities.

We are also interested in whether stage structure and trait variation together can help resolve long-standing questions in species coexistence theory and ecological stability.