Evolutionary community ecology of Odonata

Abstract

Abstract Ecological dynamics among the constituent species in a community shape evolutionary processes, and the outcomes of these evolutionary processes in turn feed back to affect ecological dynamics. Determining the feedback between ecology and evolution is therefore paramount for understanding how communities are structured. Considerable progress has been made in developing this kind of research program, with studies of odonates serving as a centerpiece. This chapter highlights how the integration of ecological and evolutionary processes have provided insight into how communities containing odonates are structured. First it presents a conceptual framework from which the interactions between ecology and evolution emerge as key elements structuring communities. It then reviews the types of interactions in which odonates engage as members of complex food webs. Next it reviews the multitude of studies that capture the dynamics of natural and sexual selection in odonate communities. Lastly, it examines how adaptation has shaped the demographic features allowing species to both persist in and alter food webs, and how adaptation may contribute to species range shifts generating uniquely structured communities and novel evolutionary dynamics. At the end, it highlights future directions and key knowledge gaps. Overall, the chapter contends that odonates are an exemplar group that has provided much information about how ecology and evolution combine to structure communities.