During my PhD, I developed a conceptual framework and corresponding methods to study eco-evolutionary dynamics in a community setting (‘Eco-Evo Sandwich’, Govaert et al. 2016, Ecology Letters). These methods quantify ecological and evolutionary contributions to population and community trait change using modified versions of the Price equation and/or reaction norms. Via collaborations, I have applied these metrics successfully to existing data sets (Stoks et al. 2016, Lemmens et al. 2017, Zhang et al. 2021, Hattich et al. 2022). In my research group, we focus on extending these partitioning methods to (i) spatial settings (see Govaert et al. 2022, Ecological Monographs for first steps), (ii) multiple stressor settings and (iii) multivariate trait changes.

In 2021, colleagues and I suggested that explicitly accounting for interactions between key processes of evolutionary biology (selection, gene flow, genetic drift and mutation) and community ecology (species sorting, dispersal, ecological drift and speciation) will yield a more mechanistic understanding of species and community responses to environmental change, and hence of a better understanding of eco-evolutionary dynamics in communities (Govaert et al. 2021, Functional Ecology). This project is currently being funded by the DFG Emmy Noether programme. Briefly, in this project we will quantify species and community responses to environmental change by experimentally and theoretically investigating (i) when to expect strong interactions between evolutionary and community processes with a focus on the interaction between selection and species sorting, and (ii) how drift and migration can alter the interaction between selection and species sorting. In this project, we will develop theoretical eco-evolutionary modelling accounting explicitly for the interaction between key processes of evolution and community ecology and perform large-scale community microcosm experiments using freshwater ciliates. The first phase of the project has officially started beginning of May with the PhD project of Emily Booms.

To experimentally quantify the ecological consequences of evolution, and how evolutionary responses differ in communities, I use freshwater ciliates as a model organism. Freshwater ciliates are easy to maintain and manipulate in the laboratory. During my postdoctoral research stay at Eawag (Dübendorf, Switzerland), I have conducted a 3-month selection experiment followed by a common garden experiment to show that the evolutionary response to increased salinity of two freshwater ciliates species differed when they were exposed alone or within a community (Govaert et al. 2021, Scientific Reports).