New paper by Dr. Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler in The American Naturalist

Dr. Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler published a new paper in The American Naturalist titled ‘Effects of community richness and competitive asymmetry on protozoa evolution in Sarracenia purpurea leaves’. The central question in this study is how evolution operates in diverse communities, which the authors aim to answer using the model system of microbial organisms within pitcher plant leaves. Findings indicate that subordinate species respond to selection while dominant species do not, likely because of high nutrient requirements. Species dominance was more important than community diversity in predicting evolutionary outcomes, suggesting intriguing interactions between ecological and evolutionary processes.