ArticleNature ecology & evolution2024
Evolutionary shift of a tipping point can precipitate, or forestall, collapse in a microbial community.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Gut microbiome dynamics in acute infectious diarrhea: A conceptual framework from acute dysbiosis toward precision restoration (Review).Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2026Review
- Stress-Driven Accelerated Evolution and Ecological Network Reconfiguration in Extremophilic Microbial Communities.Biology · 2026Review
- Uncovering the spatio-temporal patterns and drivers of 30 years of greening in South UK landscapes.Landscape ecology · 2026Article
- The microbial community metabolic regime adapts to hydraulic disturbance in river-lake systems with high-frequency regulation.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- Evolution of One Species Increases Resistance to Invasion in a Simple Synthetic Community.Microbial ecology · 2025Article
- Evolution alters ecological resilience.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Global ecosystems are rapidly approaching tipping points, where minute shifts can lead to drastic ecological changes. Theory predicts that evolution can shape a system's tipping point behaviour, but direct experimental support is lacking. Here we investigate the power of evolutionary processes to alter these critical thresholds and protect an ecological community from collapse. To do this, we propagate a two-species microbial system composed of Escherichia coli and baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, for over 4,000 generations, and map ecological stability before and after coevolution. Our results reveal that tipping points-and other geometric properties of ecological communities-can evolve to alter the range of conditions under which our microbial community can flourish. We develop a mathematical model to illustrate how evolutionary changes in parameters such as growth rate, carrying capacity and resistance to environmental change affect ecological resilience. Our study shows that adaptation of key species can shift an ecological community's tipping point, potentially promoting ecological stability or accelerating collapse.
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Registered trials
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