Diversity investigations from the micro- to the macro-scale

Abstract

Macroecology and experimental evolution are two disparate sub-disciplines with contrasting approaches to the study of biological diversity. First I use macroecology and the Global Invasive Species Database to determine the best predictors of diversity patterns of invasive species around the globe. I show that economic factors account for more of the variance in invasive species richness among countries than typical ecological variables used to explain broad-scale species diversity patterns. I then use a microecological approach in which experimental evolution is performed with the soil bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens to evaluate the idea that selection in environments varying in productivity will impact the degree of ecological specialization and maintenance of diversity. The results show that although ecological specialization increases with productivity, diversity does not. Both disciplines can be used to inform each other with the aim of explaining the abundance and distribution of species in nature through space and time.