Detecting the ecological footprint of selection

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302794
• Publication Date: 2024-06-07T18:19:20Z
• Authors: Juliette Luiselli; Isaac Overcast; Andrew Rominger; Megan Ruffley; Hélène Morlon; James Rosindell
• Keywords: Trait; Footprint

The structure of communities is influenced by many ecological and evolutionary processes, but the way these manifest in classic biodiversity patterns often remains unclear. Here we aim to distinguish footprint selection–through competition or environmental filtering–from that neutral processes are invariant species identity. We build on existing Massive Eco-evolutionary Synthesis Simulations (MESS), which uses information from three axes–species abundances, genetic diversity, trait variation–to between mechanistic processes. To correctly detect characterise competition, add a new more realistic form explicitly compares traits each pair individuals. Our results qualitatively different those previous work based distance individual’s community mean. find our easier identify empirical data compared alternatives. This especially true when available used inference procedure. findings hint signatures previously attributed neutrality may fact be result pairwise-acting selective forces. conclude gathering types data, together with advanced models as done here, could key unravelling mechanisms assembly question relative roles