Collapse and rescue of evolutionary food webs under global warming

Global warming is severely impacting ecosystems and threatening ecosystem services as well as human well-being. While some species face extinction risk, several studies suggest the possibility that fast evolution may allow species to adapt and survive in spite of environmental changes. We assess how such evolutionary rescue extends to multitrophic communities and whether evolution systematically preserves biodiversity under global warming. More precisely, we expose simulated trophic networks of co-evolving consumers to warming under different evolutionary scenarios, which allows us to assess the effect of evolution on diversity maintenance. We also investigate how the evolution of body mass and feeding preference affects coexistence within a simplified consumer-resource module. Our simulations predict that the long-term diversity loss triggered by warming is considerably higher in scenarios where evolution is slowed down or switched off completely, indicating that eco-evolutionary feedback indeed helps to preserve biodiversity. However, even with fast evolution, food webs still experience vast disruptions in their structure and functioning. Reversing warming may thus not be sufficient to restore previous structures. Our findings highlight how the interaction between evolutionary rescue and changes in trophic structures constrains ecosystem responses to warming with important implications for conservation and management policies.

Automated summary

Global warming is severely impacting ecosystems and biodiversity, with fast evolution potentially helping species adapt and survive. However, even with fast evolution, disruptions in food web structure and functioning are inevitable, indicating that reversing warming may not be enough to restore previous ecosystem structures.