Opportunities to advance the synthesis of ecology and evolution

Despite decades of research on the interactions between ecology and evolution, opportunities still remain to further integrate the two disciplines, especially when considering multispecies systems. Here, we discuss two such opportunities. First, the traditional emphasis on the distinction between evolutionary and ecological processes should be further relaxed as it is particularly unhelpful in the study of microbial communities, where the very notion of species is hard to define. Second, key processes of evolutionary theory such as adaptation should be exported to hierarchical levels higher than populations to make sense of biodiversity dynamics. Together, we argue that broadening our perspective of eco-evolutionary dynamics to be more inclusive of all biodiversity, both phylogenetically and hierarchically, will open up fertile new research directions and help us to address one of the major scientific challenges of our time, that is, to understand and predict changes in biodiversity in the face of rapid environmental change.

Automated summary

Despite decades of research, there are still opportunities to further integrate ecology and evolution, especially in the study of multispecies systems. Relaxing the traditional emphasis on the distinction between evolutionary and ecological processes is particularly helpful for studying microbial communities, where defining species is difficult. Additionally, exporting key processes of evolutionary theory, such as adaptation, to higher hierarchical levels can help understand biodiversity dynamics. Broadening the perspective of eco-evolutionary dynamics to include all biodiversity will open up new research directions and address the challenge of predicting changes in biodiversity in the face of rapid environmental change.