Abstract
Trade-offs among the abilities of organisms to respond to different environmental factors are often assumed to play a major role in the coexistence of species. There has been extensive theoretical study of the role of such trade-offs in ecological communities but it has proven difficult to study such trade-offs experimentally. Microorganisms are ideal model systems with which to experimentally study the causes and consequences of ecological trade-offs. In model communities of E. coli B and T-type bacteriophage, a trade-off in E. coli between resistance to bacteriophage and competitive ability is often observed. This trade-off can allow the coexistence of different ecological types of E. coli. The magnitude of this trade-off affects, in predictable ways, the structure, dynamics and response to environmental change of these communities. Genetic factors, environmental factors, and gene-by-environment interactions determine the magnitude of this trade-off. Environmental control of the magnitude of trade-offs represents one avenue by which environmental change can alter community properties such as invasability, stability and coexistence.
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Bohannan, B.J., Kerr, B., Jessup, C.M. et al. Trade-offs and coexistence in microbial microcosms. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek 81, 107–115 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020585711378
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020585711378