Phenotypic evolution is more constrained in simpler food webs

Global change is simplifying the structure of ecological networks; however, we are currently in a poor position to predict how these simplified communities will affect the evolutionary potential of remaining populations. Theory on adaptive landscapes provides a framework for predicting how selection constrains phenotypic evolution, but often treats the community context of evolving populations as a “black box”. Here, we integrate ecological networks and adaptive landscapes to examine how changes in food-web complexity shape evolutionary constraints. We conducted a field experiment that manipulated the diversity of insect parasitoids (food-web complexity) that were able to impose selection on an insect herbivore. We then measured herbivore survival as a function of three key phenotypic traits. We found that more traits were under selection in simpler vs. more complex food webs. The adaptive landscape was more neutral in complex food webs because different parasitoid species impose different selection pressures, minimizing relative fitness differences among phenotypes. Our results suggest that phenotypic evolution becomes more constrained in simplified food webs. This indicates that the simplification of ecological communities may constrain the adaptive potential of remaining populations to future environmental change. “What escapes the eye, however, is a much more insidious kind of extinction: the extinction of ecological interactions.” Janzen (1974)